SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCKS

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January 22, 2024

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Notre Dame Prep's lower school works with Alabama company to recycle old socks in an effort to help keep them out of landfills.

"Paper. Plastic. Aluminum cans. These items are top of mind when you think of waste headed for a landfill. They’re also among the most commonly recycled. But did you know that around 6 percent of landfill waste generated each year comes from textiles? This may not sound like a lot but it translates to millions of pounds of waste, most of which could be reused or recycled."

So goes a paragraph from the website of Zkano, a textile company in Alabama that not only makes new socks but recycles old ones in a major effort to keep them out of landfills.

NDP's lower school e-club met recently to make posters to advertise for their latest initiative, which is collecting old socks, according to Jen Wrobel, a reading specialist in the lower school and an e-club moderator along with first-grade teacher Emma DiNardo. 

"Our e-club members are collecting used, clean socks in any condition to be sent to Zkano in Alabama where they will be recycled and transformed into a fiber called 'shoddy' that is used for carpet padding in the automotive industry," said Wrobel. "The e-club truly is excited to promote another sustainability project throughout our school community."

Other recent projects from the lower school e-club have included planting milkweed and flowers in the Mary Garden; collecting plastic bags for recycling; and building environmentally friendly bird feeders, which were made from pine cones, sunflower butter and birdseed.

The e-club is requesting that members of the greater Notre Dame Prep community bring in used, clean socks to Emma DiNardo's room (107) by Feb. 9.

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

About Notre Dame Preparatory School
"At Notre Dame Prep, we inspire our students to become the best versions of themselves. We challenge them through an experience of academic excellence, focused on active, project-based learning. We invite them to explore a world of opportunities beyond the classroom. We guide them as they grow in spirituality within a community strong in its Catholic and Marist identity."

Notre Dame Preparatory School is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School's upper school enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame Prep's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDP is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School, visit the school’s home page at www.ndpma.org.