A Lesson in Garbage for Grade Schoolers: Waste Not Want Not

Children at Edna Louise Spears Elementary School stayed late for a very different kind of after school activity on Wednesday: dumping out garbage from the day's lunch onto the cafeteria floor to separate out food from recyclables and non-recyclables. Organized by the PTA's Green Team the hope is to teach the children that what they put into those gray containers doesn't disappear forever.

Director of facilities for Port Jefferson schools Fred Koelbel came to play teacher for the day explaining what they were going to do as about 40 kids gathered around him on a large plastic sheet. The janitorial staff dumped out the contents of forty-gallon pails onto floor. Kids charged the garbage bearing rakes, plastic booties and gloves to separate out the smelly trash into piles of styrofoam, food, comingled items like glass, plastic and metal and non recyclables waste.

The more trash they moved around the floor the slicker the plastic sheet became and the smell of garbage wafted around the big room. The staff, parents and very enthusiastic kids all kept at it for about 30 minutes shuffling around the sheet in their plastic booties, separating the garbage into piles to be measured by the janitorial staff.

The idea was to teach kids about recycling and waste, according to one PTA Green Team member who helped organize the event.

"We wanted the kids to see how much garbage is generated," said Karen Sullivan, Vice President of the Port Jefferson PTA.

She said that the idea is to hold a "No Waste Week" challenge in the school the week of Nov 15. Decorated waste cans will be made by the available by the PTA during lunch period where kids can separate trash before they throw it out. Parent and student volunteers will assist in training the kids in what items need to be thrown in which recycle can. By the end of the week they will repeat the waste survey and see what happens. The hope is to produce less physical garbage overall.

"We'll do this again to see if less than we have today," said Sullivan.

The Green Team wants to make a real connection with the kids to the garbage they throw away. A lesson they can carry for the rest of their lives.

"If we can get kids at this age to do it then it can make its way through the school system," said Koelbel. "More importantly if they take this and learn here that recycling is good then the kids will create that marketplace in the future that recycles and uses less."

He gave the PTA Green Team a lot of credit for organizing the event.

"I think it's great," Koelbel said. "It's the job of the PTA to enhance education and they've done that."

He estimated that the janitorial staff measured about 30 gallons by volume of recyclable garbage that was thrown into the trash.

The kids and the PTA Green Team weren't the only ones excited about the project.

"The janitorial staff stayed late to work on this," said Koelbel. "They get it. They're excited about it."

Paul and Tara Penske were more than happy to sign the permission slip their son brought home to get involved with the Green Team's project. They were even on hand to watch their son Paul separate out the garbage.

"I think they should be learning this," said Mr. Penske. "The earlier the better. It's sad that as adults we don't do this more."

The younger Paul said he thought it was a good thing to do.

"I learned how important it is to recycle," he said.

According to Principal Ted Mockrish, the most important piece for kids to take away was to see how much waste is generated during lunch.

"This hit home how much food kids are throwing away," he said.

The staff had kids separate out all the fresh whole fruit that was thrown away from the rest of the food, resulting in a rather large pile.

"A lot of fresh fruit, not rhines and peels but whole fruit," Mockrish said.

Ms. Costanzo, a Green Team member and second grade teacher at the elementary school asked the kids what they thought they can do to reduce the food waste thus reducing the amount of garbage the school produces.

"Save it for later," she suggested. "Take it with you."

The influence of the lesson was very important to Mr. Mockrish. He said that kids are great about sharing information, comparing it to the old shampoo commercial.

"They'll tell two friends and then they'll tell two friends and so on and so on," he said.

Thought they did teach the kids a lesson on waste and recycling, PTA president Jill Russell said that even the adults learned something.

"There was less trash than expected," she said. "Surprisingly they're already using thermoses and recycling."

She hopes that after the "No Waste Week" challenge there's even less.