The Recycling Generation : Students are flocking to campus clubs that focus on saving the Earth.

If you heard that 75 high school students were gathered in a stuffy science classroom at lunch to talk about the best ways to pick up aluminum cans thrown around campus by their peers, you would probably think they were on detention.

At several schools in the San Fernando Valley, however, topics such as this are drawing large numbers of students--by choice. The environmental club is challenging other school extracurricular activities for membership, a sign that perhaps society’s renewed awareness of the environment is being felt acutely by teen-agers.

“I think there’s definitely a trend here toward helping the environment,” said Gregg Solkovits, an English and social studies instructor at Monroe High School in Sepulveda. Solkovits is one of three faculty advisers to the Ecological Society at Monroe, which he helped start two years ago.

“The enthusiasm is high, we’ve never had so many students show an interest in the club. Keeping up that enthusiasm over the course of the year may not be easy, but with so many kids it’s a great start.”

Monroe senior Michael Gray, 17, publicity chairman of the Ecological Society, enrolled in the school last year and decided to join the society as a way to get involved with other students.

“I joined because it seemed like the right thing to do. I look around the campus and I notice that people don’t really seem to care about where they throw their trash. Somebody needs to start thinking about the environment. I do, and I’d like to get others to do the same.”

Solkovits, who is active in the Sierra Club, has found that his interest in the environment has rubbed off on his students.

“I really believe that if a teacher is enthusiastic about something, students get enthused about it too. We started small and then grew into this. I’m amazed by the support.”

“We’re finding that young people are really searching for ways to help the environment,” said Marsha Cifarelli, director of the Campus Forester project for TreePeople, a 20-year-old environmental organization headquartered on Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills. “We’re reaching out to them, and they’re responding.”

Cifarelli believes that the increased interest in the environment among many high school students is almost innate.

“They’ve grown up learning about what’s right and what’s wrong with the environment, and they’re a little scared. They’re not really certain about the future of the Earth and they want to do something about it.”

“I live in Malibu, and I’m used to seeing lots of trees and vegetation,” said Armin Aguero, 17, a senior at Crespi Carmelite, an all-boys high school in Encino. “When I go into the urban areas of Los Angeles, I see how more trees and vegetation are needed. As citizens, we need to clean up our act, and getting involved in a club like this is a small way of doing it.”

Aguero is president of CARE, Crespi Awareness Regarding the Environment, an organization of 30 students.

“That number’s kind of remarkable considering that the school only has about 450 students,” said Tom Sumner, a Spanish instructor at Crespi and adviser to CARE since its inception in 1990.

In its first year, CARE was involved with TreePeople helping to plant trees throughout the community. Several members learned enough to be certified by TreePeople as supervisors, meaning they’re qualified to direct planting during TreePeople projects.

“Working with them also helped our organizational skills,” said Aguero. The group also took hikes through the local mountains to enjoy nature, and to clean up.

“We’ll go out and pick up trash in areas you’d have to go out of your way to find,” Sumner said.

Being involved in CARE means making sacrifices for the environment.

“You don’t have to be very dedicated to get up early on a Saturday to go clean up a trail,” Aguero said. “But if you don’t give up some of your free time, the job’s not going to get done.”

CARE also organized a can, bottle and paper recycling program for the school, and to cut down on water waste, members volunteer to wash the bleachers around the foothill field by hand.

“We do back flips if we see someone out there squirting them down with a hose,” Sumner said.

“Our guys show up ready for work. We don’t just pick up some paper and plant a few flowers. A number of the students who are active in the club are athletes, and they’re prepared to do some serious, muscle-wrenching toil.”

However, despite their work and accomplishments, Aguero sometimes feels that much of CARE’s efforts are wasted.

“There’s really a lot of apathy out there toward the environment. You get the feeling that no one really cares. We’ve even been made fun of for the work we do.”

“It’s kind of frustrating when you set out bins for students to throw their cans into, but all you find is garbage,” said Nick Hopkins, a senior at Granada Hills High School and a member of its Community Services Club. “It’s not easy to find people who care about the environment in high school.”

“I think attitudes are changing,” said Aguero. “We seem to have more people interested in what we do, and that’s a good prospect for the future.”

That same hopefulness is shared by the 30 members of North Hollywood High School’s Environmental Conservation Club, who are running an aluminum recycling program on campus. They’ve created signs--”Learn to hold it until you get to the can”--for all classrooms.

“We’ve been very active and vocal on campus,” said Pauline Posner, an English teacher and adviser to the club. “Everybody knows who we are.”

The students march ahead, cleaning up as they go along, despite the loss of former president Allen Graves, who graduated in June.

Graves received national attention last year when he confronted the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District over regulations on newspaper recycling. His efforts earned him the President’s Environmental Youth Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. During the awards ceremony with President Bush in Washington, Graves asked the President if his office recycled. Bush reportedly shook his head and responded, “I don’t know.”

“We’re trying to change people’s attitudes toward the world around them,” said senior Jenny Kibrick, the new president of North Hollywood’s club. “It’s a tough thing to do, but all we can do is try.”

The group may be the most activist-oriented high school club in Los Angeles. When it began four years ago, its first move was a petition drive to ban the release of balloons at North Hollywood football games.

“The administration was told about the dangers of used balloons to small animals, which often eat them and die,” said Kibrick. “The release of balloons was supposed to be part of a spirit activity, but I think we showed that we don’t need that to help school spirit.”

Part of the club’s philosophy is that caring for the environment begins at home.

“We don’t use plastic in our family, because of the waste it creates,” said senior Ocean McIntyre. “My father used to be a litterbug, but he’s had to change his ways. He’s into recycling now.”

This year the club is planning several activities to give the environment a high profile on campus. It will ask that the school ban the use of polystyrene cups and that the cafeteria serve only dolphin-safe tuna. Club members are also organizing to help with a North Hollywood community beautification program, and to work with Rhapsody in Green, an environmental group seeking to preserve the sand dunes near El Segundo.

“There are lots of opportunities in the community for the students to get involved,” Posner said.

While groups such as the one at North Hollywood and others are actively involved in local environmental projects, some may be foundering due to a lack of direction.

“We have a lot of committed students, but there’s no leadership,” said a member of one high school club who requested anonymity. “There’s a lot of environmental work that should be done on campus, but I think the administration, from the faculty adviser on up, just doesn’t care about us.”

If the energy of the high school clubs can be directed into specific activities, their impact could be great.

According to Adam Werbach, a Brown University freshman who was an environmental activist while attending Harvard School in Studio City, there’s a need for direction to give the clubs a sense that they’re doing something worthwhile. If that sense of purpose is lost, interest in the club may drop.

“A number of the clubs are disorganized and lack a focus. They have a lot of enthusiasm and good will, but they’re not getting results.”

Werbach suggests that clubs affiliate themselves with an environmental organization, such as the Sierra Club or TreePeople, to get involved in community projects.

“It’s best for the clubs to contact the organization, because many environmental groups don’t think of students as a resource to help with projects. But they want to work and they’re available.”

At a recent meeting of Crespi’s CARE club, there was no shortage of volunteers when faculty adviser Sumner asked for help in coordinating the efforts of CARE with a similar club at Louisville, an all-girls high school in Woodland Hills. Several hands shot up.

“I’m available,” said one student. “This is why I joined.”