Students are invloved with recycling efforts at different levels of commitment. Bins located in all dormitories, classroom buildings and other high-traffic facilities invite sorting of plastics, glass, aluminum, paper and--of course--trash--from the outset. Every Saturday morning, several advisee groups function as teams, emptying these bins into bags (re-usable!) which they lug up to the dumpster area near the hockey rink.

The fact that advisee groups do the collecting means that--sooner or later--everyone is involved. But by the time bags of recycleables make it to this staging area, another team has been readying barrels and a wagon hitched to a minibus. This is not an advisee group, but a team of student volunteers who show up every week at this time to make it all work.

They receive the collected stuff and direct the process of final sorting. The Town of Andover recycles #1 plastics, but not #2 and others, so these need to be separated out for transportation to a facility in Penacook.

This team of students who lead the operation are motivated by something they struggle to identify. They're not getting any credit, tangible rewards, or even "thanks," for that matter. They do it because it's right.

Of course, being the kind of people they are, they've made the whole process fun. They play loud '80s music. They dance a little. They pelt one another with snowballs.

As you can see from these images, one kid (referred to as "Duane") is directing the whole process. After about a half hour of work, they pile into the bus and an adult drives them off to the town's transfer station.

Duane's actual first name is Alex. I asked him, "Why do you do this?" He replied, "It feels good." I asked him, "What's going to happen when you graduate?" He answered, "Somebody else will do it."