No Waste Week Challenge Ends With Less Trash

After a challenge put out to the students of by the PTA's Green Team to produce less waste and recycle more, the kids have reduced the amount of trash they throw away by a quarter. Students learned how to separate garbage from recyclables and now torch will be passed onto the kids themselves to be responsible for the recycling program.

On Oct. 27 the to measure how much garbage is thrown away in a single day during lunchtime. They separated out the garbage from the items that could be recycled and talked about what they could do to throw away less. The total for the day came out to four barrels of garbage.

"We learned which materials were recyclable, which were reusable, and which were going to the landfill," said PTA president Jill Russell. "Immediately following the audit, new receptacles were ordered and we launched a recycling program in our cafeteria."

The PTA ordered four new recycle bins, one each for Capri Sun pouches, cans and tinfoil, clean paper and comingled recyclables like glass and plastic. Russell explained that the Capri Sun pouches are returned to the company for money for the school so that they don't go into the garbage.

"With new receptacles in place, we now recycle plastic, glass, metal and paper," said Russell.

Parent volunteers from the PTA Green Team went to the school during lunchtime to help teach the children how to separate and recycle garbage before they threw it out. For two weeks the volunteers helped train the kids on what they can throw into garbage cans and what items they should be putting into the recycling bins.

According to Russell it was a rousing success.

"The kids are really paying attention to each item they throw away," she said. "They're scanning the bottoms of containers for the recycling symbols and excited to do so."

After this kids leanred how to recycle the PTA held a No Waste Week Challenge in the school the week of Nov. 15. The PTA asked parents at home to participate in the challenge by packing a waste free lunch for students. A list of suggestions on how to reduce the amount of waste produced in a student's lunch was sent home.

On Thursday, the PTA Green Team organized a second Waste Audit to see how much the children actually reduced the amount of trash that they threw away after two weeks of learning how to recycle.

Once again, the lunchroom waste from that day was poured onto a tarp while parents and children volunteers did the dirty job of shifting through it. It turned out that this time the kids only produced three barrels of trash compared to four barrels on Oct. 27.

"We saw a 25 percent reduction in garbage," said Principal Ted Mockrish.

He explained that the program would not end with the waste audit. The torch is being passed from the Green Team of PTA parents to the kids themselves. It's all connected to a larger ideal that Mockrish likes to promote in the school, which is kids taking on a problem and becoming a part of the solution.

"The elementary student government has volunteered to serve as monitors," he said.

By helping the kids recognize that the amount of trash going into the garbage is a problem for the environment and then involving them in the solution by teaching them to recycle, the children have learned they can take responsibility and police themselves.

"They see a problem and say this is how we fix it," Mockrish said. "When they have a stake in the solution there's more meaning in it for them."

Russell said that handing the program off to the students was the next logical step because they have been involved in the process since day one.

"These children have been instrumental in making our school a greener place," she said.