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The SWaMP Kids

They call 'em the SWaMP Kids
And they're always talkin' trash!
They freaked out the grown-ups
But they saved 'em tons of cash!

A mountain of garbage
County didn't have a clue,
The clock was a-tickin'
Till those SWaMP Kids came through!

Don't feel bad if you never heard of a group called the SWaMP Kids, because they weren't a band--they were a dozen seventh graders in Franklin County, Georgia, whose trash talk was about reducing it, recycling it, and managing it.

These kids knew that garbage isn't glamorous and dumps aren't dazzling--they're just huge problems in our country. Americans throw away a lot of stuff--if one year's worth of our trash got hauled to a dump in a single trip, it would take a convoy of ten-ton trucks 145,000 miles long!

Each year there's more waste but less space to put it in. That's why many states, including Georgia, have ordered local governments to create Solid Waste Management Plans (SWaMPs) to deal responsibly with local garbage.

The SWaMP Kids, as they came to be known, got their start with an Earth Day project. Teacher Alice Terry's students were promoting a first-ever recycling program for their county. They created a skit called "Recyclerella" to educate students and the public about the three R's--Recycling, Reducing, and Reusing.

When they studied the whole issue of waste management, they discovered that their county didn't have the comprehensive waste management plan required by Georgia law. What's more, the county had no plan to start on, and was about to face a $10,000 per day fine for having no plan. They also faced big expenses for hauling the county's trash to a distant dump--the local dump was about to be full.

The kids decided that they could write a plan, even though it meant they'd have to sacrifice their after-school time and to step outside the safety of the classroom and into a new worldd of government offices and county board meetings, all filled with disbelieving adults. "They had to contact legislators about laws and call various agencies about guidelines, so it was much more than just caring about the topic," says Terry.

The SWaMP Kids began asking for meetings with county officials. The hardest thing was getting adults to take them seriously. The officials couldn't believe that seventh graders could do the job. Then the kids spoke at a public meeting, and it was obvious to everyone there that these seventh graders knew more about making such a plan than anyone else. The kids had done their homework--they got official approval to write the county's plan, a job that other counties had paid adult consultants up to $20,000 to do. The SWaMP Kids didn't ask to be paid; they just wanted to help their community.

The kids had a goal: though the dump had been declared almost full, they would make a plan that would keep it open for 10 years by reducing the amount of trash that went into it, mainly by recycling. The kids wrote budgets, studied land limitations, and even got the five cities in the county to cooperate with each other, something they didn't usually do.

The result was a 756-page plan that saved the county huge fines, a big consulting fee, distance hauling fees and, most importantly, extended the life of the dump by at least 20 years. It was the only such plan in the state.

How did kids succeed where adults were failing? "What's valuable about a group of kids is that they tackle a project with a different perspective," says Terry. The SWaMP Kids' story is told in schools across America to show what amazing things kids can accomplish when they stick their necks out and become active citizens of their community.

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