By Ian Wesselhoff 

A group of five mass communication seniors at Georgia College & State University spent this November encouraging Baldwin County children to save the planet – one battery at a time. 

The students, all part of a campaign capstone class taught by Dr. Mengyao Xu, organized a two-week battery recycling challenge at Midway Hills Academy, where each grade competed to recycle the most. 

Those two weeks culminated Nov. 13, just two days before National Recycling Day, in a celebration event catered and sponsored by Chick-fil-A at the Midway Hills Academy after-school program. Through the “Battery Hero” campaign, students at the school brought in a total of 27 pounds of used batteries in only eight school days. While third grade took the trophy, the real winner was the Earth. 

Batteries contain toxic chemicals, often including heavy metals like lead and mercury, which can cause significant environmental pollution if not disposed of properly, said Dr. Hasitha Mahabaduge, associate professor of physics at Georgia College. 

Georgia is one of just 17 states without household battery recycling requirements, according to call2recycle.org, and battery drop-off locations in Baldwin County are scarce. The Battery Hero team hopes that their work could someday change that. 

“I want to, together with my students, make a change to the community here,” said Xu, assistant professor of communication. “Maybe one day Georgia could have its own regulation about how to dispose of the batteries.” 

The GCSU team of Sairsha Connor, Clary Eidell, Olivia Gentry, RJ Head and Aidan McGowan made its first visit to the after-school program Nov. 3. There, they introduced over 100 students to the idea that batteries are recyclable – plus, a surprise appearance from the Chick-fil-A cow mascot that had the cafeteria buzzing. 

The main activity on that initial visit was a custom-made coloring sheet that contained information targeting parents at the bottom. 

“A lot of us didn’t even know that you’re not supposed to throw out your batteries,” Gentry said. “So we’re like, let’s start telling kids that are younger, because when they grow up, they’ll know, and they’ll tell their kids, and it’ll kind of be a snowball effect.” 

The inspiration for the project started with Xu, who, upon moving to Milledgeville in 2024, grew frustrated with the lack of convenient options for battery recycling. Last semester, she asked her campaign principles class to devise a campaign that would encourage people in Georgia to recycle their used batteries. This semester, she asked her capstone students to execute that plan. 

With team members reaching out to schools, securing sponsorships, designing a logo, buying merchandise and managing all the other behind-the-scenes tasks in between, the project was entirely student-led. 

“We’ve been very independent in how we want to run this campaign,” McGowan said. “But I think Dr. Xu has helped us take it above and beyond what we really anticipated doing at the beginning of the semester.” 

To organize a campaign of this scale, the students knew they could not do it alone. They enlisted the help of the Office of Sustainability and other university faculty and staff like Dr. Kevin Bucholtz, associate provost of student engagement and academic excellence, Angela Criscoe, executive director of the School of Continuing & Professional Studies, and Ashley Copeland, director of the Office of Community Engagement & Service. 

The college-wide support to help students create a real impact in the community illustrates the kind of experiential learning and community partnerships that are hallmarks of GCSU’s liberal arts curriculum. 

“It just kind of shows that the university puts their money where their mouth is,” McGowan said. “This is the experience that they advertise when we come here as students … This college has a clear vision for what they want their students to achieve while they’re here.” 

After the success of this first Battery Hero campaign, the foundation has been laid for future iterations. In December, Xu and the team will meet with Dr. Kristina Brooks, superintendent of Baldwin County Schools, to discuss expansion across the district. Xu plans for her future campaign capstone classes to continue the project and hold competitions in more schools, gradually growing its size and, subsequently, its environmental impact on the community. 

“I think it’s exciting,” McGowan said. “I wish recycling in general was just more like something that people were interested in, and so it is cool to be the first people to sort of try to break this open and get more people interested in it.”

Header Images: Midway Hills Academy third graders won the grade level challenge for being Battery Heroes. All of the after-school program students got to celebrate their recycling accomplishment with Battery Hero campaign swag, Chick-fil-A nuggets and cookies, and a visit from the Chick-fil-A cow. (Photos: Anna Gay Leavitt)