To the editor:

I am a senior at Lawrence High School. Today is one of very few days that I have bought from our vending machines. As I walked through the school in search of a recycling bin for my bottle. I was disturbed to find none. To imagine the about 1,600 students at my school alone who use those machines and toss their bottles and cans is outrageous. I can only imagine the amount of nonrecycled products thrown away throughout the whole district. Is this really how the Lawrence public school district treats the environment? This is ridiculous.

To my understanding, the recycling bins were removed because of an ant problem. This was being caused by the lack of prompt removal of the recyclable products. Also the health department was involved. Can we not come up with a plan? Was the only thought to just remove the recycling bins? Taking away the recycling bins has not removed any problems. It only created more. Maybe it was done with lack of understanding. But who was considered in the removal. Were any students asked what they thought? Were any plans considered?

I am a concerned person, and student. It is time people began taking responsibility for the state of the environment. I understand we can not do everything, but we can help. Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet. You can make 20 cans out of recycled material with the same amount of energy it takes to make one new one. Lawrence needs to take action.

Nicolette Weil,

Lawrence