How one local teen turned old binders into a new schoolwide sustainability project

BY VALERIE HARDY

What ultimately became an extensive environmental effort started with a simple day of decluttering. The summer after finishing eighth grade, Kendall Kuntz, now a junior at Downers Grove South High School, was helping her family clean out their basement when she happened upon the four binders that she and her older brother, Evan, were required to use during their combined four years at O’Neill Middle School.

“They’re big binders – more like briefcases,” Kuntz explained. “We didn’t want to throw them away and just have them end up in a landfill, because they would stay around for a really long time.”

Kuntz saw the negative environmental impact of these oversized, no-longer-needed school supplies as a problem to solve.

Last year, Kuntz collected over 100 binders to be recycled in partnership with SCARCE.

“I hope it lives on even after I graduate.”

– Kendall Kuntz, on her binder recycling initiative in District 58

Looking at the world through an eco-friendly lens wasn’t new to Kuntz. Her family is environmentally conscious and instilled that mindset in her as well. “In elementary school, I wrote papers on the environment…and I took Advanced Placement Environmental Science my sophomore year,” she explained, a class typically taken by juniors and seniors.

With this deeply rooted interest in environmental sustainability, Kuntz recognized the binder waste issue was greater than just the binders in her basement. She did the math and quickly realized that if every student at O’Neill uses a new binder each year and then throws it in the garbage, it equates to a significant amount of non-biodegradable material entering local landfills.

That was when her research into recycling options really began. Through this research, Kuntz learned about SCARCE, an environmental education nonprofit organization dedicated to creating sustainable communities. Kuntz noticed that SCARCE had done projects with O’Neill Middle School in the past, and since the nonprofit is based in nearby Addison, she decided to make a visit.

Kuntz brought one of her old binders along on her initial trip to SCARCE. She said that the organization’s Founder and Executive Director, Kay McKeen, gave her a tour of the facility, and then the two of them “dismantled the binder I brought together, prying the clamp out, recycling the cardboard part… That was the moment I thought, ‘We can really do this!’”

Lincoln Garst, Charlotte Garst, Lucia Madden, and Sienna Thurston help Kuntz save 197 pounds of waste from local landfills. Photo courtesy of SCARCE

The “this” Kuntz was referring to was bringing her vision of a local large-scale binder recycling initiative into reality. “I love when projects are student-led,” McKeen said, “so she had our full support right  from the beginning!”

With SCARCE on board as a partner, Kuntz’s next steps involved seeking buy-in from the O’Neill Middle School community. McKeen encouraged Kuntz to meet with O’Neill’s principal, Lauryn Humphris, who McKeen described as a “wonderful person who really understands caring for the environment.”

McKeen had come to know Humphris through past partnerships with the school and “knew she would be all for this project,” which she was.

Kuntz also presented her binder recycling plan to O’Neill’s PTA. “I wanted parent support,” she explained. “They needed to be OK with their kids giving up their binders at the end of the year to be recycled.”

Finally, Kuntz showed a video about the proposed project to the O’Neill students, proceeded with creating promotional flyers and social media posts, and collaborated with the school to send correspondence to families about the binder recycling timeline and process.

On the last day of the 2024-2025 school year, Kuntz collected 122 binders and transported them to SCARCE to begin the demanufacturing process. While she spearheaded the effort, Kuntz had help not only from SCARCE but from her brother and five of their friends. 

Ultimately, Kuntz and her team’s efforts led to nearly 200 pounds of material being recycled, including cardboard, metal, and textiles. Of the binders collected, the only waste was 16 pounds of nonrecyclable foam.

In addition to the binder recycling, Kuntz also collected numerous folders and notebooks from the O’Neill students to donate for reuse or recycling.

The project was such a success that Kuntz hopes to not only continue it but expand it. “My big, big hope for this is to move it to Herrick [Middle School] also,” she said, especially with the two middle schools adding sixth grade next year – and correspondingly one-third more binders.

Kuntz also envisions starting an environmental club at Downers Grove South to “keep the project going.” She added, “I hope it lives on even after I graduate.”

McKeen has full faith that this will happen. “We have a saying at SCARCE: ‘Little Things Add Up!’” she said. “So, if [Kuntz] rescues the resources for recycling and some for reuse at one school, it could become a project at both middle schools in Downers Grove, and then maybe at other middle schools.”

SCARCE Environmental Educator Emily King also believes in the limitless potential of the project Kuntz began. She lauded Kuntz as a “remarkable young woman” whose efforts can “inspire so many other students and schools to find sustainable solutions to the question of what to do with school supplies or other items that are no longer needed or wanted.” 

Lincoln Garst, Charlotte Garst, Lucia Madden, Kendall Kuntz, and Evan Kuntz recycle binders at SCARCE. Photo courtesy of SCARCE