Erase the Waste

Sorenna, a Williamsburg Girl Scout, has earned the Silver Award, the second highest honor a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

Sorenna, who is a student at Lois S. Hornsby Middle School, noticed that a large amount of recyclables was being placed in trash bins at her school. For her Silver Award project, Sorenna implemented a recycling program at her school, which included a recycling center in the cafeteria, recycling bins for each classroom and monitored recycling at school events, including dances and plays. To promote the new program, which she titled Erase the Waste, Sorenna hosted a recycling poster contest and displayed the winning entry in the school.

Sorenna was inspired to make an impact on the environment when she worked on completing the Girl Scout Breathe Journey and learned about pollution and what can be done to prevent it. She wanted to find a place in her community where there was an opportunity to reduce the amount of trash going to the landfill.

“At Hornsby, a little more than 900 kids were disposing recyclables the wrong way,” Sorenna said. “I wanted to change that one recyclable at a time.”

Sorenna also started a Recycling Club at her school, and the members will be responsible for monitoring the recycling program, collecting recyclables from classrooms, making posters to promote recycling and making sure that recyclables are collected at special events held at the school.

“My project impacted our community by lowering the amount of recyclables being put in local landfills and also impacted my school by helping it be more environmentally friendly,” Sorenna said. “It also helped students and staff have a different thought process each time they throw away a recyclable.”

The Girl Scout Silver Award is the highest award earned by Girl Scouts in middle school. To earn the award, Girl Scouts have to identify an issue in the community and carry out a Take Action Project to address the matter through leadership work.

The winning entry of Sorenna's poster contest