After seeing his students throw away large amounts of plastic bottles and cans, Health teacher and Head Coach of the boy’s basketball team, Drew Halvorson decided to do something productive with them.
Halvorson installed a tall black bin with a sign labeled: “Water Bottles. Proceeds go to West Albany Basketball” at the front of the room. From then to now, he has seen a lot of success just by installing one of these bins in his room as students in his classes have been thoughtful and put in effort to make sure their bottles and cans go into the recycling bin. With these contributions from students, Halvorson can empty the bin at least 2 times per semester. Most of the bottles and cans come from his classes right before lunch and a quick look into the bin shows a diverse range of options, everything from water bottles to sports drinks to soft drinks, yet the most prevalent kind of beverage were energy drinks.
The money made from these bottles and cans count as extra funds for the boys’ basketball team. Halvorson explained that all of the factors involved behind the scenes can make the sport expensive, such as new basketballs being around $80 just for one ball, so he tries to ease the cost as much as possible. These funds go towards new/extra jerseys, equipment, and travel gear. In order to ensure that players don’t have to do extra fundraising and are able to just focus on their role as an athlete.
“I do things like the Bottledrop and anything else I c[an] do on my side so that my players can be supplied [for] in a way that lets them be their best,” Halvorson said.
As every little bit counts towards ensuring that every player is cared for in the financial aspect and considering that many students drink from plastic bottles and cans on the regular, Halvorson is also supportive of placing recycling bins like these around the school.
“I think it’s a great idea [to install bins around the school],” Halvorson said. “You know, [the bins] will pay for [themselves] after a while. I think it’s great for not only the environment but you could apply [them] to another place in the school that might need funds.”
