School Programs

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

Cooper Elementary School
The recycling program at Cooper Elementary School in the Vacaville Unified School District, Solano County, began during the 1996-97 school year. Peggy Alexander, Vice Principal, and Julia Kimsey, 6th grade, green-track teacher, co-wrote a grant to get the program off the ground.

The recycling effort at Cooper ties directly into the 6th grade science curriculum. The program is designed to teach students the value of recycling by tying classroom concepts to the realities of waste in their school, home and community. As students are learning about recycling and conserving natural resources, they can actually practice their knowledge through this program. The "Recycling Team" is comprised of 14 students who collect paper from the classrooms and office. To date the program has recycled approximately 3,000 pounds of paper. Through the Recycling Resource Education Program, students have learned the important role that recycling plays in not only benefiting the environment, but their school as well.

Malcolm X Academy
In 2003, Malcolm X Academy in the San Francisco Unified School District, San Francisco County, made exceptional efforts to promote a school-wide composting program (Adobe PDF, size not available). Through a competitive application process, twenty proud 4th graders were chosen as compost and recycling monitors that helped students separate garbage from organic waste that could be composted. They also emptied, cleaned, and stored the compost buckets. What's more, student monitors applied their math skills by tracking the amount of compost collected in a calibrated bucket and graphing the results. All 4th grade students also created a bulletin board for the entire school that illustrated the benefits of composting. What a great example of doing an extra special job of turning lunchtime waste into fun, food, and flowers!

Marshall Elementary School
When school staff from Castro Valley Unified’s Marshall Elementary School in Alameda County found that cafeteria food waste and Styrofoam lunch trays were the most common wastes in the school’s dumpsters, teachers and students wanted to change the situation. With support from school district administrators, principals and teachers decided to change to cafeteria service. Staff members from the Castro Valley Sanitary District assisted in writing a grant proposal to the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board. Funding from a grant provided by the Recycling Board made change possible. See the Alameda County Solid Waste Authority spring 1999 School Recycling News for more information.

Using the grant funds, staff were able to purchase a dishwasher, reusable trays, and silverware. Students were impressed with the new trays and quickly caught on to the idea of reuse in the lunchroom. The custodial staff experienced an easing of their workload because there was simply not as much trash to haul out to the dumpster. They were able to use some of their extra time to join in the recycling effort started by students by sorting the cardboard, paper and milk cartons into separate recycling containers. After the initial waste reduction efforts, garbage disposal was reduced by one-third, from 48 to 32 cubic yards per month!

Oak Grove Elementary School
At Oak Grove Elementary School in Sonoma County, recycling is taken very seriously--and they do it well. With some assistance from worms and pigs, students have reduced their landfill output by nearly 90 percent. For more information, see Virtual Exhibit's Project Showcase: A Sustainable School Developed.

Park View Center School
The fifth grade class at Park View Center School in Simi Valley was awarded the 2001 Jiminy Cricket’s Environmentality Challenge grand prize. Their environmental project incorporated all 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle), as well as composting. The students’ project involved reconstructing a school worm farm to reduce school cafeteria food waste and establishing a permanent recycling area for school paper, plastic, and other items. Their "reuse" efforts resulted in vermicompost for the school garden from the worm farm. By diverting cafeteria food waste to their worm farm, the worms produced soil-enriching casings within weeks for use in the school garden. Moreover, the students created new paper for art projects from recycled paper.

Pine Hill Elementary School
Recycling is now easier and more convenient than ever at Pine Hill Elementary in the South Bay Union Elementary District, Humboldt County! This school provides a great example of establishing a certified recycling collection program on a school site to serve the school and the entire community. Through this innovative program, several paper products can be combined for recycling (which means less sorting) and recycling materials can be taken to the collection site at Pine Hill School on the first Monday of each month from 7:30-8:30 a.m. California Redemption Value (CRV) recyclables are sold for their redemption value and all proceeds are donated to Pine Hill School. All recyclables are collected and transported by members of Humboldt Bay Service Corps (Americorps). By recycling at the Pine Hills School, community members not only divert waste from local landfills, but they also make a donation to school.

Prairie Elementary School
Prairie Elementary School, part of the Pacheco Union Elementary School District, is located 180 miles north of Sacramento in the County of Shasta. The school serves a student population of 320 students, comprised of K-3 grade levels.

Motivated by a cut to custodial funding, Jeff York found a way to cut disposal costs at Prairie Elementary School. Jeff, the custodian at Prairie Elementary School and an avid reader of the CIWMB Web site, has put the recommendations he has read to use. By observing what was being thrown away, Jeff was able to identify what the school could divert for recycling. "I identified four products that my waste hauler would pick up at no cost. These items include cardboard, #10 tin cans, paper and plastic. I then requested a 1-yard container for cardboard and three 96-gallon containers for paper and plastic."

By diverting these recyclable materials from Prairie Elementary School's trash, the school has reduced its number of trash containers from two 4-yard containers picked up twice a week, to one container picked up once a week, that's half! In addition to the new recycling program, the school has made waste reduction efforts as well. The school cafeteria uses washable hard plastic lunch trays and has recently gone back to using washable flatware.

This reduction of service translates into a cost savings for the District, one that may not happen if someone like Jeff isn't monitoring the program weekly. The district's monthly bill has been reduced from $689.24 to $220.00. The Superintendent, Mr. Reed, agreed that any money saved in the reduction of disposal costs would be redirected into the Prairie School site budget. Jeff has also discovered that during school breaks the contracted disposal service can be modified to "active" or "on-call" so that the District is not paying for service it doesn't need. Jeff provides the monitoring needed to make that call to the hauler to let them know in advance when service is not needed.

Prairie Elementary School is also integrating their new recycling knowledge with an educational program for their students. Christina Schlosser, from Shasta County Department of Resource Management Community Education Section (CEC), visited the school to educate the staff and students on what items can be recycled. The program is targeted for K-3 grade level, and is called "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle."

Since an article about the program appeared in the local Record Searchlight newspaper, other schools have called to find out how to get started with their own recycling programs. Additionally, the recycler has agreed to pick up emptied milk and juice cartons from the breakfast program and will phase in the lunch cartons. Jeff is confident that when all the cartons are removed from the waste stream the school's disposal bill will be reduced even more!

The school district officials are considering adopting an integrated waste management policy. Such a policy would institutionalize smart business practices such as recycling for years to come. Check out the following links for more information:

• Sample policies
• School waste hauling contracts
• Shasta County Department of Resource Management Community Education

Sierra Elementary School
Sierra Elementary School, in El Dorado County has developed a comprehensive school recycling program. Since the program’s inception, this K-5 school has built a model recycling program that recycles aluminum, glass, yard waste, food waste, and even leftover milk! Approximately 450 students and 40 teachers work together at Sierra to effect this successful program that has reduced the waste generated at their school by 50 percent. For additional information about this program, see the spring 1996 issue of Reusable School News.

Model Programs Home

Last updated: September 18, 2008