The 7th-grade students have been collaborating with the nonprofit Blue Jeans Go Green for our service-learning project. Blue Jeans Go Green is a nonprofit organization created by Cotton Inc. to reduce denim waste. They divert denim from landfills and recycle it to make insulation for homes. Denim is made of cotton; when producing cotton, there is a staggering amount of water used. To make up for this water usage, BJGG increases denim's life and usage, making it worthwhile to produce. Denim waste is a serious problem; there is an estimated 850,000 tons of denim in landfills just in the United States.
We started by interviewing Steven Pires, associate director of sustainability at Cotton Inc., and learned about how Blue Jeans Go Green is trying to reduce the effects of the cotton industry on the environment. Then, we created different roles based on our strengths and interests. Our teams are the external communicators who are designing social media posts about our campaign, the event organizers who are organizing an event to educate students about recycling and denim waste, the creative educators who are designing activities for students to learn about sustainability and denim recycling using the materials in the CLI to make models, the advertising team who are working to create posters and boxes to place around the school to promote the campaign to all the students and faculty, and the internal communications team who are creating and presenting a chapel presentation to raise awareness for Blue Jeans Go Green. The chapel and CLI event are on November 17.
We want to collect as much denim as possible! If your child is in 1st through 8th grade, we recommend sending in your old denim on November 17; there will be prizes for the grades that bring the most! If your child is in the ELC, please donate your old denim in the bins around STS (they are boxes labeled Blue Jeans Go Green). You can donate any denim (printed, colored, embellished, ripped, stained, or scraps). You can also recycle your meal delivery insulation liners if they are created from denim!