Welcome to the Resourceful
Schools Project!
By implementing a recycling
program, Cooperating School Districts
of St. Louis and the St. Louis County Department
of Health can help your school or school district:
- Reduce Waste
- Improve Resource Management
and
- Foster student achievement
Is it necessary to recycle?
You decide. The average American generates about 4 pounds of trash each
day. That's three-quarters of a ton per year, or almost 6,000 tons of
garbage per person, in an 80-year lifetime. Think about what you threw
away today and ask yourself, "Where is AWAY?" Many students ask this
question, and they are AWE-STRUCK by the answer.
Most garbage everywhere is
hauled by trash trucks and dumped in a landfill. Paper, metals, plastics,
construction materials, books and magazines, electronic devices, toys,
textiles, organic materials ... if it's trash, it's landfilled. Compacted
and buried, there forever, trash will stay!
Modern landfill technology
and strict government regulations ensure safe and efficient operation
of landfills, and they are a useful option for disposing of some things.
However, 80 percent of the items and materials that are commonly landfilled
still have useful life remaining. They could be recycled and made into
new products.
Here are some materials that
Resourceful Schools can efficiently -- and affordably -- recycle:
Aluminum
-In many schools a club or sports team or even a conscientious individual
will collect aluminum cans for recycling. Beverage cans can be readily
sold, and recycling aluminum can provide a modest flow of funding for
all kinds of special projects.
Cardboard
- Recycling corrugated cardboard also benefits schools. Some waste haulers
will provide cardboard recycling services separately from trash collection.
Bulky boxes can take up yards of volume in dumpsters -- and that is
space that schools are paying for! When cardboard is broken down and
separated out for recycling, the reduced demand for space in your school's
trash containers can reduce your school's disposal costs!
Plastics,
steel and other container materials - Some schools arrange
for collection of food and beverage containers made from steel, glass
and various kinds of plastic. Recycling these materials might best be
tackled as a special project within an established recycling program,
but they are important to recycle, because they're made from irreplacable
natural resources.
Organic
waste - School yard waste and some cafeteria food wastes
can be composted, on-site, with a very simple, student-driven collection
system. And the plants in your school garden or outdoor classroom will
flourish with the addition of these organic resources.
All of these school waste
materials are still useful resources, not just trash! But the most significant,
cost-saving waste reduction is achieved when a Resourceful School recycles
PAPER!
Paper
constitutes 50 to 60 percent of the waste output in any school. It can
be both reused and recycled. If every sheet was fully used, on both
sides, as scratch paper or for making copies, would your school's paper
costs decrease? And
if your school recycled half of all that it normally pays to "throw
away," how much would that cut costs for trash disposal?
To become a Resourceful School
you'll need:
Haulers
- Some schools work with separate haulers for trash and recycling. Many
companies specialize in recycling collection, and schools -- which generate
large amounts of paper and other recyclable materials -- are often sought-after
customers. Some haulers
charge for recycling pick-up, some collect at no charge, and some may
even pay a school for their recyclable materials!
Recycling can also be integrated
within your district's or school's Waste Hauling Contract. CSD's
"Resourceful Schools Project" experts can help your school develop contract
amendments, or with building cost-savings and recycling into a new RFP,
when your waste-hauling contract is up for renewal.
Your hauler will determine
the range of materials your school can recycle, and it's important that
adults and students know the items that will be accepted for recycling,
to minimize contamination in the stream of recycled resources.
Instead of waste, Resourceful
Schools are generating raw materials for manufacturing new products!
Each hauler sells these materials to a broker, or provides them directly
to a company that makes recycled-content products.
Leadership
- Typically, a teacher and a class, or a club or team of student leaders
will champion recycling in a school. This is a great structure, because,
by recycling, students can really "make a difference" in their school.
Paper recycling can be a service-learning project -- and a focus on
paper can initiate lively classroom investigations. Awareness generated
by recycling can even translate into Science Fair projects!
Administrative leadership
is essential. If your program will be district-wide, establish a top-level
recycling policy, which both supports and mandates everyone's positive
recycling efforts. And the motivation and knowledge that can result
from recycling will benefit your school's overall learning environment.
Equipment
- Recycling bins should be placed in every classroom and office, in
the Library and at all adult workstations. Students can reuse cardboard
boxes, and mark them as recycling bins with hand-made or computer-generated
signage. Some haulers and some municipal governments will provide bins
and other kinds of collection equipment, to support school recycling.
With generous funding from
the St. Louis County Department of Health, "Resourceful Schools Project"
bins are available to public schools in St. Louis County. And of course,
they're made with recycled plastic! Rolling totes or carts are also
helpful tools for recycling collection. Your hauler may provide them,
or they're a durable and fairly inexpensive school purchase. Your school
may already have some totes in use, which can be dedicated to recycling
collection. Many haulers will provide their valued school customers
with a dumpster specifically for recyclable materials.
A
Convenient System - When recycling containers are clearly
identified and handy to access throughout a school, people will get
in the habit of using them -- just as they'll find a trash can rather
than litter. Establish a regular weekly or biweekly collection day --
and form a Waste Management Team of students and adult staff members
who will collect the recyclables within your school -- and remember
to recruit the custodians as part of the team!
Your Resourceful School can
go even further than collection, and "close the recycling loop" with
your purchasing power. Check out CSD's "Earth-Friendly Products Catalog"
for the best prices on a wide range of recycled-content school supplies.
Education
-- the primary business of schools -- is a big winner in recycling,
too. The Resourceful Schools team offers both classroom and project-oriented
materials correlated to the Missouri Show-Me Standards, which can be
customized to help teachers meet any district's curriculum requirements.
Teacher workshops are available,
as are concise staff development presentations on many resource-related
topics. Educational
activities in the Resourceful Schools Project combine process and content,
in a lively, participatory atmosphere.
Recycling is a hands-on,
real-world learning experience. For example, when students make paper
as a class activity, the process is a miniaturized version of actual,
industrial paper manufacturing! The main ingredients are water, and
used paper obtained from recycling collection. Students use blenders,
and paper companies use gigantic "hydropulpers." The final products
can be sheets of paper, or molded-paper forms which are used as containers
or packing materials. Resourceful
Schools students can even visit local businesses, to make a first-hand
comparison.
Students apply their math,
science, social studies and communication skills, while recycling builds
teamwork and problem-solving ability.
---
From district-wide paper
recycling to a special project in a single school, the Resourceful Schools
team can help
[
