BonnerSprings.com

Bonner Springs Elementary fourth-graders got in the spirit of Earth Day, collecting nearly two tons of paper Thursday in an afterschool paper-recycling drive.

The activity was part of an Expeditionary Learning activity the three fourth-grade classes did on landfills.

For their investigation, as the Expeditionary Learning sets of related activities and projects are called, the students wrote persuasive essays to representatives and heard presentations from Stan Slaughter, a musician who sings about environmental issues, and Rita Hoag, Bonner Springs city clerk, on the curbside recycling program set to begin for residential homes in Wyandotte County this summer.

Wearing T-shirts reading "Don't Spoil It," the students unloaded bags and boxes of newspaper and office paper from vehicles that pulled in near the Abitibi recycling containers in the rear of the school's parking lot. Pepper, the mascot for Abitibi Bowater's Paper Retriever program, joined the students

The school receives money from Abitibi for each 6-cubic-yard container loaded with paper. The containers typically are filled at a rate of about one per month, said fourth-grade teacher Chuck Loganbill. The Bonner Springs Wal-Mart also sponsors an Abitibi container for which the recycling revenues go to Bonner Springs Elementary, Loganbill said. Wal-Mart also lent the class a couple of shopping cars for the paper drive to use for moving paper from cars to the containers.

The school donates the money raised from the paper recycling to various causes, Loganbill said, which have included Jerry's Kids and the purchase of bicycle helmets for local youths. The funds have also paid for a new sound system in the school's music room and lunches for students whose projects were featured in a science fair at Union Station in Kansas City, Mo.

Charisse Lacy, a recycling representative with Abitibi Bowater, said a full container typically has two to three tons of paper in it. The students collected more than 3,649 pounds on Thursday, Lacy said later.

Steffan Mefferd, one of the fourth-graders moving paper from cars to the recycling containers, said the activity was "fun, because we're helping the environment."

Alexis Sechrist, another fourth-grader, said recycling was good because it meant more oxygen, the result of fewer trees needing to be cut as more paper is recycled.