Office of Sustainability
Recycling
2015 Recycling Poetry Award Winners
RECYCLE…IT’S COOL!
Recycling is important,
Turning old things into new.
Fewer things end up in landfills,
And you can help out too!
You can join a recycling program
At your very own school.
Inspiring and teaching others,
Oh, recycling can be so cool!
But our state’s recycling rate
Stays the same year after year.
However, there are many ways
To kick it into high gear!
For every container, every package,
With the unique recycling logo,
Say “Good-bye icky trash can,”
And to the blue bin, say “Hello”!
If we work together,
Everyone hand in hand,
We can make this planet
Green and very grand.
Saanvi Vavilala
Mount Tabor Elementary School, Grade 4
Mount Tabor
GO GREEN AND RECYCLE
Think about our impact on Earth,
Saving the Planet is part of our worth.
In order to keep it healthy and clean,
We must convince people to go green.
Recycling is an easy fix
To get everyone in the mix.
Most things are reusable, like bottles and cans,
All you need is motivation and your own two hands.
Together we can keep landfills clear-
We can be heroes, there’s nothing to fear.
Earth is our mother, our heart and soul,
We are the fruit and it is the bowl.
So let’s all go green and keep the earth clean!
Katrina Kloza
Rockaway Valley School-Grade 4
Boonton Township
IMAGINE
Try to imagine how the world
would be,
if everyone first thought about
the air, land and sea?
An old water bottle could be a
new bench, bag or toy.
An old metal can could be a
new bike for a girl or a boy!
Who knows, in the future,
planes or ships
once could have been in your lunch
as a bag full of chips!
A cleaner tomorrow starts with
reusing today,
so stop and think before
throwing everything away!
Gavin Jusino
Littleton Elementary School, Grade 4
Parsippany
DO YOUR PART
Recycle, recycle, recycle,
An important word on Earth.
Making new out of old,
To save our future’s worth.
Recycling helps save money,
Which we all know is the best.
When you buy recycled products,
They are cheaper than the rest.
If we all recycle paper,
The cutting of trees can stop.
Recycling will then save energy,
Which makes pollution drop.
Future generations will be happy as can be,
When they learn of all the students who gave
Earth its harmony.
Victoria Nicol
Veterans Memorial Elementary School, Grade 4
Brick
RECYCLING ROCKS!!!
Ohh…Recycling!!!
Good for every living thing.
By protecting nature and environment
and making sure our resources are not overspent.
Students like you and me
can help our own community.
If we recycle every day,
we grow and learn in many ways.
Participating makes us responsible citizens
and completes our duties as Americans.
It gives us a great sense of purpose
giving to others through community service.
Educating and encouraging others to join the cause,
as well as adding recycling laws,
will help improve our recycling rate,
and build a future that will be great.
Alexandra Muscillo
Gregory Elementary School, Grade 5
Long Branch
ODE TO RECYCLING
Oh Recycling,
Without you, Earth would be a giant landfill full of trash
and as dark as night.
I love how you save energy, reduce waste
and protect wildlife.
Without you, animals would vanish from the Earth due
to waste, deforestation, and loss of habitat.
I love how you reduce water pollution so fish can
swim happily.
I love how you provide recycled products
like 1 ton of 100% recycled paper saves 17 trees
and 7000 gallons of water.
Recycling—
You may seem pointless to others,
but what’s really in your name
is hope.
Hope to help Earth.
Nikolaus Halkias
Highland Avenue School # 10, Grade 5
Linden
OUR BUCKET BLUE
As we walk down the hall with our bucket blue,
We gather things we can renew,
Papers and bottles from far and near,
We’ll rush to your room to recycle it here!
We come to your class every week for one day,
And knock on your door to say,
“Good morning! How are you? Hello, fellow peer!
Do you have much to throw out? We’ll recycle it here!”
If we don’t recycle and throw things in the dump,
They would stay there for years, all sitting in a lump,
It would never change or be something new,
It would just stay there waiting, that’s what it would do!
All of the garbage that had a stench,
Can turn into tables, or even a bench,
You can also make a compost pile,
I’m sure that if you do, it will make people smile!
Nicole Henninger
Beachwood Elementary School, Grade 5
Beachwood
CAN I AM
My life started out as a small metal can.
Then they took me to the recycling man!
He melted me down,
And shipped me out of town
Now I’m a big frying pan!
As the end of my cooking days drew near,
I said good-bye to my friends, so dear!
I got sold as some scrap,
To a guy in a green cap,
And became part of a plane’s landing gear!
Julia Bachman
Mountview Road School, Grade 5
Morris Plains
DON’T THROW ME OUT
Hey there, I’m plastic!
What I do to ecosystems is quite drastic.
I don’t easily biodegrade,
and cut down populations like a blade.
In the North Pacific Gyre,
you can find one-too-many tires.
With 3.5 million tons of waste,
it is not a very pretty place.
So next time you throw me out,
tell yourself without a doubt
that I will be floating in the sea
maybe for a century…
So, do you mind recycling me?
Elise Schicker
George G. White School, Grade 6
Hillsdale
THE RECYCLING RULE
Every day at school
We should follow one simple rule,
Before each and every class
Get ready to toss out their trash.
They should have a plan
To put their recycling in a can.
Throw paper, plastic, glass and tin
Into the blue recycling bin.
Help to become a solution
Instead of contributing to more pollution.
We need to reduce, reuse and recycle
So we don’t continue this vicious cycle.
My elementary school
Is so awesome and cool,
Because we follow this little rule
Each day when we’re at school.
Ashley Espinosa
Fredon Township School, Grade 6
Newton
KEEP THE RECYCLING BINS OPEN
Recycle, it’s time to do your part,
Put items in the recycling bin as a start.
Take the boxes, newspapers, and cans,
Recycle them for a much cleaner land.
You can recycle bottles into something new,
This helps our planet and saves the animals too,
By giving them a cleaner place to roam;
Purchase recycled products too for a greener home.
Recycling is easy, so make it a routine,
Do your part to keep our earth clean.
You will feel better if you conserve pollution,
Keep those bins open and be a part of the solution.
Renee Grunwald
St. Catharine School, Grade 6
Spring Lake
RECYCLING POEM
The Earth was a place with glorious shine,
A healthy green home I could call “mine”.
Then people stopped caring and never bothered to ask
For New Jersey to start a recycling task.
We rarely recycled so everything died,
And it was our fault because we never tried.
Schools were wasteful and threw recycling out the door.
New Jersey should’ve encouraged recycling more.
Students failed to recycle overall
So the happiness of Earth started to fall.
This only proves what not recycling will do,
And how saving Earth is all up to you!
Lily Starrs
Knowlton Township Elementary School, Grade 6
Delaware
