District Programs

The following are examples of successful school district waste reduction programs. Perhaps you can find aspects of these programs that will work in your district!

Berkeley Unified School District
The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) in Alameda County is proving that environmentally friendly waste-reducing programs can save schools money. Through increased recycling during the past school year, four Berkeley schools were able to decrease their garbage pickups, saving between $2,000 and $3,000 dollars. The district obtained recycling bins through a partnership with Berkeley’s Solid Waste Management Office. These bins are used for recycling aluminum and cardboard lunch trays, glass bottles and aluminum cans, and bins for mixed paper collection placed within each classroom.

A dishwasher, reusable dishes and silverware are being introduced at Oxford Elementary for classroom nutrition lessons. This will save money by eliminating the need to purchase disposable plates and utensils and by cutting back on school garbage collection costs. In addition, it is a way of utilizing the cafeteria as an educational environment where students can learn how to reduce waste, recycle, and compost as called for by BUSD’s organic food policy. See the Alameda County Solid Waste Authority's fall 1999 School Recycling News for more information.

Davis Joint Unified School District
Five local groups have joined forces to create the DJUSD's Recycle Program Partnership with a goal to reduce the solid waste stream at eight elementary schools by 50 percent. As a result, the first day of the 2003/2004 school year began with the theme, "Recycling is Simply Elementary (RISE)."

Each member of the collaboration contributes key components to the RISE program's overall success:

• Davis Waste Removal supplies the schools with the basic equipment for students and staff to establish a baseline waste reduction program at each school site.
• The City of Davis printed an introductory letter for parents at Back-to-School Night, explaining the importance of the waste reduction program and encouraging parents to become part of the program solution.
• Davis Educational Foundation works with each school PTA to promote parent participation, prepares informational packets, and assists with program training for the parents.
• The RCC Group, a local consulting firm volunteering to assist, developed a workable model for the sites, in order to reach the 50 percent reduction goal.
• The School Recycle Team at DJUSD implements the on-site program and monitors the garbage dumpsters and recycle bins each evening to ensure accurate records.

The main components of the program include:

• The recycle coordinator works with principal, custodian and science teachers to organize the program at each school.
• Students recycle their breakfast and lunch waste, with the help of the on-site coordinator, other students, lunch supervisors, or staff--depending on the school's setup.
• Recyclable materials are picked up by Davis Waste Removal.
• Compostable materials (fruits and vegetables) are incorporated into the composting system at each school, as part of the school garden curriculum.

For more information, see the RISE program web site. Additionally, for an example of how the partnership monitors the program for effectiveness and opportunities for cost savings, see the memorandum to the RISE coordinator (Adobe PDF, 43 KB) on the program’s initial progress and recommendations for reducing the pickup frequency of solid waste bins at the school sites.

You can also read about the DJUSD’s efforts to pilot comprehensive food waste diversion projects at three elementary schools on the Board’s food scrap diversion contracts site.

Desert Sands Unified School District
The Desert Sands Unified School District in Riverside County passed a resolution and hired a full-time recycling clerk to launch a solid waste reduction program. Within a year, the program was implemented at the district’s administrative offices and at every school within the district. They started by focusing on the district offices and allowing sites to start their own programs when they were ready. All 21 schools within the district recycle mixed paper and cardboard. For additional information about this program, see the fall 1996 issue of the CIWMB Reusable School News.

Downey Unified School District
According to the Santa Barbara Waste Reduction Program the Downey Unified School District  in Los Angeles County saved over $200,000 dollars by recycling and composting their waste over a four year period. The majority of these savings resulted from reduced trips to the landfill, cutting the district’s annual trash bill of $100,000 in half. In just four years since the inception of the program, Downey Unified reduced the amount of trash it sends to the landfill by 65 percent and realized a savings of $200,000 dollars.

Fremont Unified School District
Through funding from an Alameda County Recycling Board grant, an exciting recycling program is underway in the Fremont Unified School District (FUSD). According to a district waste assessment, over 50 percent of the waste from FUSD sites is recyclable. Annually, the district generates 50,000 to 60,000 one-gallon steel cans; 90,050 cardboard boxes; and 1,338,700 milk cartons. The program aims to recycle more of these and other materials and to reduce waste disposal costs as well. See the Alameda County Solid Waste Authority's spring 2000 School Recycling News for more information.

La Mesa-Spring Valley School District
La Mesa-Spring Valley School District in San Diego County saved a net $116,557 dollars from recycling, but saving money isn’t the only reason for students, staff and parents at the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District to recycle just about everything possible from its 23 school sites and administrative and operations centers. Environmental responsibility motivates K-8th graders, as well as their teachers and parents. The La Mesa-Spring Valley School District’s Project Divert (District Involvement Via Everyone Recycling Trash) focuses on educating the district’s students, staff and parents on the topics of environmental awareness and responsibility, and, at the same time, involves them in the hand-on practices of reduce, reuse and recycling on a daily basis. For additional information about this program, see the spring 1999 issue of the CIWMB's Reusable School News.

Los Angeles Unified School District
In 1991, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in Los Angeles County adopted a policy to meet 50 percent waste diversion. As of August 2000, the LAUSD was achieving an estimated diversion rate of 50.3 percent. This is an increase from the 1998 rate of 43.2 percent resulting from expansions and improvements in the district’s existing waste reduction programs. The single largest additional diversion in 2000 was attributed to the recycling and reuse of construction and demolition materials (e.g., recycling of parking lots and driveways) as base materials from repairing existing schools. The LAUSD Board of Education adopted a High Performance Schools resolution for construction of new schools and LAUSD staff prepared a construction and demolition waste recycling policy for Board of Education approval.

Additionally, the LAUSD recently adopted a policy on the procurement of environmentally preferable products to compliment the district’s aggressive implementation of waste reduction programs at schools and nonschool facilities. Through the policy, the Board of Education of the City of Los Angeles recognizes that the purchasing of environmentally preferable products is an integral part of ensuring a market for the materials collected and recycled by the district.

Oakland Unified School District
With funding assistance provided by the Alameda County Recycling Board, the Oakland Unified School District has begun a district-wide recycling program. The project has been broken into 3 phases and will eventually bring all 120 Oakland Unified schools into the program. The first phase will start with paper and cardboard recycling, phase 2 includes aluminum, steel, glass and plastic containers and phase 3 collects and recycles wood and landscaping debris. See the Alameda County Solid Waste Authority's fall 1999 School Recycling News for more information.

Palo Alto Unified School District
The Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) in Santa Clara County, with assistance from the City of Palo Alto, launched a new and expanded district-wide recycling program for elementary schools during April’s Earth Day Week. Although some schools have been recycling some materials for many years, this new program provides the district with the opportunity to recycle additional materials, reduce garbage costs, and model waste reduction behaviors to PAUSD students.

Piner-Olivet Union School District
The Piner-Olivet Union School District (POUSD) in Sonoma County negotiated a new solid waste service contract for the 2001-2002 school year, which includes specific recycling requirements. As a result, the POUSD has implemented "mixed" recycling in all its schools! The new "mixed" recycling program allows the schools to place all paper, cardboard, aluminum, tin, glass, plastic containers (# 1-7); and milk, juice, and soy/rice milk cartons into the same container. Additionally, to promote the new program and increase participation within each school in the district, the waste hauler provides free staff training and recycling presentations to help educate the students. Because the district can now recycle so many materials and the recycling process has been made easier than ever, recycling rates are expected to soar! Even more, since this recycling service is provided at no additional cost, the district anticipates reducing disposal service, and subsequently, saving disposal costs over the next few years. The new recycling program will help conserve and protect the environment, save the district money, and help educate the students on the importance of recycling. For more information, contact Becky Leffew, Business Manager, (707) 522-3008.

Torrance Unified School District
The Torrance Unified School District's contracted trash hauler (Waste Management), has partnered with TUSD for the second year recycling program to reduce solid waste to local landfills. This service includes two 3-cubic yard containers, one for paper and one for co-mingled products that consist of cardboard, plastic, aluminum, etc. for each school site and the district administrative offices at no charge. When full, they pick up the containers (no charge) and provide the proceeds to the TUSD sites. Waste Management also provides each site with several wheel-totters for the staff/students to collect and move the recycled products to each container. Students are excited about the program as they have learned to recycle at home and now in our Torrance schools.

Through excellent opportunities for student involvement, such as environmental clubs, and girl and boy scout activities, students are learning that recycling makes a difference by preserving our natural resources reducing the overall waste volume and earning proceeds at the same time!

Ukiah Unified School District
The Ukiah Unified School District (UUSD) and the Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority (Authority) are working together to raise the bar for recycling in UUSD. In order to assist the City of Ukiah and the County of Mendocino in their efforts to divert 50 percent of their waste from landfills by 2000 and to express the UUSD’s commitment to resource conservation, the Ukiah Board of Education established specific recycling policies  (Adobe PDF, 12 KB) in 1993. As a part of this partnership, the Authority conducted an initial assessment of the UUSD’s waste reduction efforts to serve as a baseline and continues to collect data to provide the UUSD with an annual evaluation of the program’s overall effectiveness. For example, the authority’s report to the UUSD for the 2000/2001 school year revealed that:

Additionally, a new program is being implemented to compost food in school gardens and the UUSD has a new trash hauling contract with Ukiah Solid Waste Systems with an emphasis on recycling built into the contract. The new contract gives all UUSD schools free single stream or "mixed" recycling service. The district's schools can now mix all paper, cardboard, aluminum, tin, glass, plastic containers (# 1-7); and milk, juice, and soy/rice milk cartons in one container. The new program makes recycling easier because separation of recyclables is not required. "Mixed" recycling has helped the district increase recycling rates, reduce garbage costs, and helped protect the environment. Also built into the waste contract, is extensive recycling outreach to all UUSD schools. This includes personal school site visits, recycling training and presentations, meetings between haulers and school administrators, distribution of recycling posters and literature, and annual checkups.

The UUSD’s commitment to waste reduction does not end with recycling alone! In fact, UUSD has also realized significant savings by incorporating waste prevention practices throughout the district operations. Two excellent examples of such waste prevention practices include the one-time recapping of bus tires to reduce expenses and tire waste and the adoption of a two-sided copy paper policy with a goal of saving 30 percent reduction in paper purchases for a savings of $12,540 dollars. For more information contact Gary Brawley, Superintendent, (707) 463-5211.

Weaver School District
The Weaver School District in Merced County implemented a comprehensive district-wide recycling program and reduced its waste disposal costs. In this district program, all K-8 students take part in recycling and learn how important it is economically and environmentally. The recycling company that buys reusable paper wastes furnished the district with containers, collects the paper, and pays the district any revenues that exceed the company’s costs. Through this arrangement, the district reduced its collection fees by approximately $500 dollars per month. For additional information about this program, see the spring 1996 issue of the CIWMB's Reusable School News.

Westmorland Union Elementary School District (posted February 11, 2005)
Westmorland Elementary School, the only school within this district, provides an outstanding example of how to create local partnerships to reduce solid waste generation and to achieve substantial cost savings. The school’s comprehensive waste management plan includes programs to recycle cardboard, mixed paper, food and beverage containers, construction and demolition waste, food waste, green waste, books and computers, and hazardous waste. Additionally, these activities provide the perfect complement to the School’s on-going environmental education efforts. The School’s monitoring and evaluation activities also enable its staff to continually improve the program and to quantify its success. To learn more about this program, please read the full case study.

Windsor Unified School District
The Windsor Unified School District (WUSD) in Sonoma County, implemented single stream or “mixed” recycling in all their schools in an effort to reduce garbage costs, help the environment, and teach their students about sustainability. In a collaborative effort between the district’s local hauler, custodial staff, students, teachers, and administrators, all WUSD schools have successful recycling programs in place. Such collaboration has been necessary to make sure the day-to-day function of the program is carried out successfully. While the hauler is responsible for all outside recycling dumpsters and school education and training, students and custodial staff help is needed to get recycled material from classrooms and break/lunch areas to the outside bins. The success of the recycling program is largely due to each school’s cooperation throughout the district.

With the new program, students and staff may mix all paper, cardboard, aluminum, tin, glass, plastic containers # 1-7; and milk, juice, and soy/rice milk cartons in one single container. All recycled material that has been “mixed” together is taken to the hauler’s high-tech sort machine for separation. Mixed recycling has made recycling easier for WUSD schools and has helped them increase their recycling rates! For additional information contact Dan Wells, Director of Maintenance, (707) 837-7796.

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Last updated: November 01, 2007