Lots of cans, paper, and plastic is what students in Alberton found while picking up garbage in celebration of Earth Day last week.

“We even found an air conditioner, and an entire pizza in a box,” exclaimed one student while working along the Clark Fork River near Bible Lane.

“I even found a wrench,” said sophomore Kolton Hensleigh, as he held up his shiny treasure.

First-grader Rainie Acker said that they were “helping the earth,” as she picked up a roof shingle and put it into a garbage bag. She then caught up with her classmates as they continued to scour the neighborhood in search of wayward trash items.

The Alberton students were split up into groups, for example, the seniors were paired with the first graders; juniors with the Kindergarten; sophomores with third grade; freshman with the second grade class.

Buses took them to places near Alberton including Petty Creek and the Natural Pier Bridge. Others walked through areas of town like the stretch east of Railroad to I-90. Several bags of trash had been collected after two hours. The students returned hot and thirsty, as well as a little pink, since temperatures reached 80 degrees in the high mid-morning sun.

But most of them appeared happy, knowing that they were doing something good for the town and the environment.

“I know that we’re helping by picking up trash, and its good exercise,” said eighth grader, Emma Baughman.

Earth day is held on April 22 and started 46 years ago by concerned citizens to “give voice to an emerging consciousness, and channeling human energy toward environmental issues,” according to the website earthday.org

The Earth Day Network grew out of the first Earth Day and works with organizations in local communities worldwide on conservation challenges. Some issues include initiatives like cutting down on energy use; eating less meat; buy local produce, end junk mail, stop using disposable plastic and recycling.

For example according to the Earthday website, the meat industry is responsible for 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. It states that producing one calories of meat requires nearly 20 times the amount of energy as one plant calorie. By eating local produce, consumers reduce the amount of carbon emissions needed for transportation. But also harvested produce immediately begins to lose it nutrients and if it takes seven days from farm to table, fruits and vegetables may have lost nearly half of their original nutritional value.

Some other interesting information from their website said that over 100 million trees are cut down each year to produce junk mail. People can reduce junk mail by removing their names from companies and organization’s mailing lists, and opt out on catalogs, coupons, phone books, and credit card offers.

The corner stone of the Earth Day movement is to plant trees. According to the Earth Day Network, trees help communities achieve economic and environmental sustainability. Trees filter the air and help stave off the effects of climate change. They may be a safety buffer to extreme weather, and help reverse the impacts of land degradation.

In the morning, before students struck out to rid the town of garbage armed with black trash bags, the older students gave Earth Day presentations to the younger grades. Hoping to inspire the next generation to help keep our planet green.