School Waste Reduction

Maintenance and Operations

• Introduction
• Grounds
• Custodial
• Maintenance
• Buy-Recycled
• Resources
• Footnotes

Introduction

The Downey Unified School District in Los Angeles County saved over $200,000 dollars by recycling and composting their waste over a period of four years. A majority of the savings resulted from reduced trips to the landfill, which cut the district’s annual trash bill in half to $100,000 dollars. In just four years since the inception of their program, Downey Unified reduced the amount of trash it sends to the landfill by 65 percent.[1]

A key component in successful school district waste reduction programs is to ensure that waste management and other environmental issues are carefully woven into operation and maintenance procedures (e.g., contracts, procurement, training, manuals, etc.). To accomplish this, a system must be developed to provide guidelines that define acceptable operational and maintenance practices, employee training, and strategies to promote environmental efficiency through resource conservation and waste reduction. Although specific staff assignments may vary by school district, this site provides resource conservation and waste reduction strategies for activities typically performed by grounds, custodial, and maintenance staff. These strategies are intended to assist an operations and maintenance department design procedures to reduce the waste generated in daily operations and to help use resources more efficiently, saving both time and money. The cumulative result of these efforts is a cleaner, safer working and learning environment for students and staff.

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Grounds

Organic waste, including landscape waste, typically accounts for 31 percent of a school district’s waste stream.[2]  Efforts to reduce landscape waste, can have a significant impact on district-wide waste reduction goals and disposal costs. School district’s can maintain their grounds in an environmentally sound and cost-effective manner by using responsible landscape management practices that reduce green waste generation, reuse trimmings and prunings on site, and recycle organic products (mulch and compost) back into the landscape.[3]

The following "resource-efficient" landscape management practices can reduce the generation of green waste, decrease the need for water, fertilizer, and pesticides, and lower maintenance costs.

1. Efficient Irrigation. Over watering produces rapid plant growth which requires frequent pruning and mowing. Water runoff containing fertilizers and pesticides can enter storm drains and pollute local creeks and rivers. Use water-efficient irrigation systems that can deliver a precise volume of water to plant root zones. Use soil probes to monitor soil moisture before watering. Develop watering schedules based on historical or actual evapotranspiration data.

2. Precise Fertilization Usage. Applying precise amounts of fertilizer in a timely manner will reduce growth, diminish the potential for water pollution, and promote healthy plants. Use slow-release or organic-based fertilizers based on nutrient needs of plants as verified by soil testing. This will reduce growth spurts which increase the need for pruning and mowing.

3. Grasscycling. Use mulching mowers that leave grass clippings on the lawn when mowing. Grass clippings will decompose quickly and release valuable nutrients back into the soil. Moderate growth through proper turf management will produce short clippings that will not cover the grass surface. This will reduce water and fertilizer usage and green waste generation as well as maintenance costs.

4. Selective Pruning. Excessive and haphazard pruning of shrubs and trees is wasteful and unhealthy. Pruning should be limited to maintain natural growth patterns. Hedging, topping, and shearing of landscape plants into formal shapes only encourage excessive new growth. Use natural pruning techniques at the proper season to promote healthier plants and to reduce "suckering" and stabilize growth.

5. Build Healthy Soil. Organic matter additions (such as compost) can transform poor soils into a fertile growth medium that supports healthy plant growth while reducing water, fertilizer, and pesticide requirements.

6. Composting. This is nature's own way of recycling, is the controlled decomposition of organic material such as leaves, twigs, grass clippings, and vegetable food waste--all of which are generated by schools. By composting, school districts can help to keep the high volume of organic material out of landfills, potentially reduce the district's hauling and disposal costs, and turn this material into a useful product.

• In addition to composting, you can also help reduce organic waste by vermicomposting (composting with worms). Use worms to transform food waste into nutrient-rich finished product called vermicompost.

7. Mulch. Use shredded or chipped plant materials with an appropriately high wood content as a mulch cover over the soil in planting beds and other bare areas in the landscape. Mulch will insulate plant roots, reduce weeds, minimize water loss, and control erosion and dust problems. Use on-site generated trimmings as feedstock.

8. Environmentally Beneficial Design (Xeriscaping). Reduce turf areas and establish new landscape plantings with more water-efficient plants to reduce green waste, conserve water, and lower maintenance costs. Retrofit outdated irrigation systems and amend depleted soils to save water and promote healthy plant growth.

9. Buy Recycled. Organic materials such as lawn clippings, landscape trimmings and food scraps make up over 35 percent of disposed materials in California. However, as discussed above, these organic materials can be made into compost and mulch and used in many environmentally beneficial ways. Therefore, school districts can play a vital role in increasing demand for these products.

• Compost/Mulch Procurement Specifications provided by CIWMB may assist school district building and grounds maintenance managers and procurement officers in developing specifications for purchasing compost or mulch for use in landscaping applications, erosion control, weed suppression and other end uses.

10. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)--Implement "…a pest management strategy that focuses on long-term prevention or suppression of pest problems through a combination of techniques such as monitoring for pest presence and establishing treatment threshold levels, using non-chemical practices to make the habitat less conducive to pest development, improving sanitation, and employing mechanical and physical controls. Pesticides that pose the least possible hazard and are effective in a manner that minimizes risks to people, property, and the environment, are used only after careful monitoring indicates they are needed according to pre-established guidelines and treatment thresholds."

Practices that reduce landscape waste generation produce significant economic and environmental benefits. Direct savings result from reduced maintenance, labor, water and fertilizer costs. Indirect cost benefits include reduced hauling expenses, disposal fees and less exposure to workers’ compensation claims due to crew injury from lifting heavy loads. On-site management of yard trimmings returns valuable, high-quality nutrients and organic matter to the soil. This encourages healthier, disease and pest resistant plants that improve appearance, prevent erosion, and increase property values.

Additionally, using recycled organic materials in landscapes enhances soil fertility and water-holding capacity, slows evaporation losses, increases plant drought tolerance, conserves water, and also suppresses the spread of wildfires. Using the environmentally beneficial landscape maintenance practices outlined above will reduce fertilizer and water usage, which in turn reduces toxic runoff that can lead to surface and groundwater pollution.

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Custodial

Use durable mops, dust mops and rags. Clean and reuse mops, dust mops and rags.

Use refillable pump spray bottles. Replace single-use aerosol cans with reusable pump spray bottles. Fill such containers with cleaning products from larger containers.

Buy cleaning products in bulk or concentrated form. One large container of product uses less packaging per ounce than several smaller containers. At the same time, however, only order what can be used before the product expires. Educate staff on proper mixing of concentrates to avoid waste and save money.

Reduce the use of disposable bags. Control the use of disposable bags for lining trashcans and for collecting waste. Consider eliminating liners from recycling collection bins and using reusable liners or containers.

Use reusable vacuum cleaner bags. Replace disposable vacuum cleaner bags with reusable bags to reduce waste and the cost of buying replacement bags.

Replace toxic cleaning products with non-toxic or less toxic alternatives. Appropriate janitorial products can play a role in promoting green buildings and a healthy learning environment. 

• The Janitorial Products Pollution Prevention Project provides workshops, fact sheets and other tools and resources discussing the environmental, health, and safety issues associated with cleaning products.
• The King County, Washington Environmental Purchasing Program provides information and resources to assist in the purchasing of environmentally preferable cleaning products.
• U.S. EPA’s Cleaning Products Pilot Project is designed to foster environmentally preferable purchasing decisions by Federal procurement officials and the public and is also a great tool for school districts.

Enhance diversion of materials for recycling. Look for opportunities to improve the school district’s recyclable program. Custodial staff knows better than anyone what materials are being disposed in the greatest quantities and can identify opportunities for expansion and improvement of the school district’s waste reduction program.

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Maintenance

Keeping school facilities and equipment in good working order is an essential component in a school district’s waste reduction program. By extending the life of school facilities and equipment, you reduce the need for (and cost of) replacement and ensure that the school performs at the level at which it is was designed. Inadequate maintenance can lead to problems ranging from poor indoor quality and increased energy expenses, to visually, thermally, and acoustically inadequate environments. The costs of fixing these problems often exceed the investments to prevent them. The following strategies will help the school district reach its waste reduction goals through effective maintenance.

Implement preventive maintenance program complete with maintenance schedules and records of all maintenance performed for all building equipment. Planned preventive maintenance extends the useful life of school district property, building components and equipment, thereby preserving investments. The Collaborative for High Performance Schools recommends that an effective maintenance plan:

• Educate staff on the value of maintenance, and how a properly functioning facility will help them educate their students.
• Establish a budget for maintenance.
• Hire qualified staff or contractors to perform tasks.
• Develop a preventative maintenance plan, including schedules for periodic maintenance checks.
• Develop a predictive maintenance program to prevent problems from occurring.
• Use a work order system to track work orders, maintenance performed, and costs for each piece of equipment.
• Ensure that the maintenance staff has proper operation and maintenance manuals.
• Ensure availability of recommended spare parts in the warehouse.
• Provide training to the maintenance staff.

Repair, refurbish, and reuse furniture and equipment throughout school. Chairs and desks can be reused within a school. For example, unused chairs can be used as props in school productions. Use durable materials for all repairs.

Employ reusable filters in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. Fewer filters are discarded if reusable filters are cleaned and reinstalled. For a list of vendors, visit the U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR web site for schools.

Send old equipment (e.g., air conditioner cooling compressors) back to the vendor to be refurbished and resold or to a recycler.

Install electric hand dryers in restrooms to eliminate paper waste.

Use rechargeable batteries. Establishing a system to turn in used batteries for recharging can save money and reduce the quantity of batteries discarded.

Recycle spent batteries. Collect used alkaline and worn out rechargeable batteries at a central collection point and recycle them if possible. Check with your city or county recycling coordinator to see if your community has a program to collect batteries and send them to be recycled. For more information on batteries, see the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) fact sheet on Universal Waste and the U.S. EPA fact sheet on Disposal of Alkaline Batteries.

Purchase equipment powered by solar or fuel cells when available and cost effective over the product’s expected lifetime.

Recycle spent fluorescent lamps. Fluorescent lamps contain mercury, which is released into the atmosphere when tubes are broken in trash. Collecting them in their original containers and shipping them to a fluorescent lamp recycler reduces the risk of exposure to hazardous wastes. For information on disposal of fluorescent lamps see the DTSC final regulations, fact sheets and other information on Universal Waste. You can also view the July 2001 list of companies claiming to Process or Recycle Spent Mercury Containing Lamps.

Consider replacing light ballasts in your school if your school was built before 1979 or has not had a complete lighting retrofit since 1979. Many schools in the U.S. have fluorescent light ballasts containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

• The United States Environmental Protection Agency recommends the removal of all pre-1979 fluorescent light ballasts in schools to prevent accidental exposure of students, teachers, and other school personnel to highly toxic PBCs through fires or leaks. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control is working to remove and safely dispose of PCB-containing lighting ballasts in schools. For more information, contact Mardis Coers at (916) 322-0712 or see the EPA web site on PCB Lighting Ballasts in Schools. This subject is also addressed in the California Department of Education, School Facility Planning Division Advisory 99-04 PCB Fluorescent Lighting Ballasts in Schools (10/29/99).

Use water-based instead of solvent-based paints to minimize toxic emissions and allow clean-up with water. For more information, see the CIWMB Oil-Based Paint and Coatings--Hazards and Responsible Use fact sheet and the Fall 1993 issue of Reusable School News. 

Use excess paint for renovation projects and graffiti removal.

Establish a Reuse Area. Many of the waste materials generated in school maintenance and operations can be reused or recycled (e.g., wood, metals, etc.).  Maintenance staff at Santee School District in San Diego County established a wood reuse area.  Salvaged wood is used not only to repair items, but also make items rather than purchasing new ones.

In addition to incorporating these waste reduction strategies into the Operation and Maintenance procedures, it is important to partner with the district’s facilities and planning department to ensure other environmental issues, such as indoor air quality, energy conservation, water utilization, landscape maintenance, and other environmental effects, have been addressed. For information about designing school facilities that are energy, materials and water efficient and easy to maintain, see the CIWMB web site on high performance schools.

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Buy-Recycled and Other Environmentally Preferable Products

Today, more and more products are made from recycled materials--from the carpeting and insulation used in office buildings, to the reams of office paper purchased each day. Buying recycled helps "close the recycling loop" by putting the materials we collect through recycling programs back to good use as products in the marketplace. Operations and Maintenance staff purchase and use many items that are available with recycled-content, such as landscape products, carpets, fencing, benches, tables, mats, signs, etc. Specific information and resources to facilitate the purchase of recycled and other environmentally preferable products is provided on the pages of this Resource Guide developed for the Purchasing Department. 

Resources

A Landscaper's Guide to Reducing Yard Waste. This CIWMB guide focuses on reducing yard waste, how to prevent it and what to do with it. Ideas and activities called xeriscaping, grasscycling, mulching, and composting are discussed. In addition, the practice of using materials and products made from recycled resources is presented with an illustration on how this practice can benefit you while helping the environment. Finally, a listing of informational resources is available for increased waste reduction knowledge, saving money, and assisting your community.

A Landscaper's Guide to Mulch: Save Money, Control Weeds, and Create Healthy Landscapes. This CIWMB guide provides landscapers with a practical guide to using mulch in producing healthier plants while protecting the environment and saving time and money. This guide describes the different types of mulch and their uses, provides guidelines on how to apply mulch for various end uses, how to prevent the spread of plant diseases, tips on how and where to buy mulch, and much more.

Cleaning for Health: Products and Practices for a Safer Indoor Environment. This report is a one-stop guide to environmentally preferable cleaning products and methods that have been effectively used in office buildings, schools, hospitals and other facilities in the United States and Canada. It describes pioneering product evaluation programs and lists the preferred brands that were chosen based on environmental and performance criteria. A model specification as well as manufacturer contacts and other resources are provided for those who want to develop a safer cleaning program for their buildings.

Healthy Schools Network, Inc. This web site on guides and materials includes an 8-page guide on healthier cleaning and maintenance practices and products that promote 'green' housekeeping. This guide was developed jointly with the NYS Association of Superintendents of School Buildings and Grounds. NYS SBGA represents facility directors from more than 500 of the state's 700-plus school districts.

National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities tracks key K-12 school facilities issues. Resource lists are annotated bibliographies that include links to full text publications and related web sites, book descriptions, studies, reports and journal articles.

Footnotes

1. Santa Barbara County Waste Reduction Programs

2. Statewide Characterization Study Results and Final Report, CIWMB, December 1999.

3. Waste Reduction Policies and Procedures for State Agencies How to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Buy Recycled in California State Government, (Word 6.0, 312 KB) August 1999.

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Last updated: April 04, 2008