Aryan Tuteja, a sophomore at Discovery Canyon Campus High School, enjoys problem-solving, particularly when it comes to math.

“It gets complex in the middle, while you’re solving a problem, but the answer, when you get to it, is usually simple,” said Tuteja, 15. “And it feels relieving, almost, to get to the answer after all those complex steps.”

Tuteja recently applied his prodigious STEM skills toward a problem that, he hopes, has at least one simple solution: awareness.

Through the Climate Leaders Fellowship, a collaborative leadership program provided Stanford University Deliberative Democracy Lab and the Rustic Pathways Foundation, Tuteja designed a waste management project with the aim of making his school and community more aware of the environmental harm done by improper waste disposal and the resources available to Colorado Springs residents who care about the planet.

When Tuteja – a freshman at the time – created an online survey at his school to learn how many students and staff members recycle their waste materials at home, he found the results disconcerting. According to the poll, more than 20% of people were unaware of the potential harm of not recycling, nor of the resources at their disposal.

“So I made a website to increase awareness about different waste management services in the Springs, so people will recycle or compost more,” Tuteja said.

After exhaustively researching the topic of waste management, Tuteja created a website, titled “Saving the Planet,” that leads with an impassioned plea.

“Our planet is facing a life threatening disease,” the website reads. “Humans are dumping 2.33 billion tons of trash each year. Our planet cannot sustain this. We are obliterating everything we have invested in since the beginning of time. Now we must take action.”

In addition to providing information about recycling, composting and incineration – all feasible ways to reduce the amount of waste in landfills, according to Tuteja – the website offers an opportunity to donate funds to support a global recycling drive.

“Together we can make a difference for a cleaner and greener future,” the website states.

Tuteja also pleaded his case during his civics class, with a trifold poster board outlining the global waste management crisis and possible solutions.

The fundraising campaign hasn’t gotten a lot of traction so far, but since Tuteja implemented a QR code into his website to allow his fellow students to “one-handedly interact” with the page, he has seen a significant increase in site visits, which he hopes will translate into more donations.

“The point of the project was to get as many people as possible to analyze the website and educate themselves,” Tuteja said. “If our target audience is more informed, then hopefully more of them will want to get involved.”