Ranch youngsters launch recycling program

RANCHO SANTA FE — The students of Rancho Santa Fe School District have started a Go Green Club. Nearly 50 club members from R. Rowe School’s first through fifth grades now spend their lunch recess once a week empowering their classmates to reduce, reuse and recycle at school.
The club has surveyed and provided each class with recycling containers for paper, plastic and cans, as they educate the school on recycling at lunch. Containers have been purchased and distributed throughout the school. Posters have been made and placed around the school, and the club members have spoken to their fellow classmates at recent assemblies.
Rancho Santa School District is working cooperatively with SSbottleco, an Encinitas-based company selling eco-friendly stainless-steel, reusable water bottles. The company was born with one goal: to reduce the amount of plastic being created and disposed of for the simple act of drinking water, and it has created a school fundraising program to help educate students while raising funds for the schools. At an assembly on Feb. 25, the Go Green club kicked off the school’s fundraising program of selling stainless steel bottles with the new RSF Go Green logo.
Inspired by actions sports, SSbottleco created a DVD as part of its educational program with footage and quotes from some of the world’s best professional surfers and snowboarders along with an explanation of the impact of one-time-use plastic water bottles on the planet.
For the launch, X Games winner and vert ramp skater Bucky Lasek spoke to the students, along with X Games winner and freestyle snowboarder Jussi Oksanen. Ssbottleco print the bottles with the school’s Go Green logo, as well as offering plain bottles to friends, family and local residents, with 30 percent of each bottle sale going directly back to the school.