Dumpster Diving - The Results!

We had a great time at our first green club meeting of 2009 learning how to green our lunch. The kids learned how NOT to pack a lunch from Wendy Wasteful and how to pack a lunch from Go Green George. Then we talked about how 16 bags per day (almost 3,000 bags per year) of cafeteria trash are landfilled from our school alone! We talked about how to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We went outside and looked through a bag of cafeteria trash and found lots and lots of trays, some recyclables, chip bags, milk cartons and some untouched food. We talked about how we could reuse the black trays, how to get the kids to recycle better inside the lunchroom, what to do with those chip bags and if we could ever use washable trays again.

I still would like to see us try and use washable trays for one day (maybe during Earth Day). Don't you think the kids should experience a nostalgic moment like taking their tray to the window? One possibility to make this happen would be for parents volunteers to wash the trays that day.

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What's One Can?

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November Go Green Classroom Winners

The November Go Green Classroom Winners are:

• Kindergarten - Mrs. Scates' Class


• First Grade - Mrs. Thornton's Class


• Second Grade - Mrs. Loevenstein's Class


• Third Grade - Mrs. Cousin's Class


• Fourth Grade - Mr. Steuber's Class


• Fifth Grade - Mrs. Brandt's Class
  

These classes are to be commended for most of the students recycling classroom scrap paper, glue sticks, and lunchroom recyclables.

Here is a picture of the tropies awarded to each grade level.

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Green Club Morning Meeting for K - 2

Our first WES Green Club morning meeting for students K - 2 will be held on Thursday, November 19 at 8:30 in the cafeteria. Please arrive on time as the program will promptly start at 8:30. Students will go to their classrooms at the end of the program. Parents are welcome to stay as well. Please contact us at gogreenwoolridge@gmail.com if you'd like to help out.

Students will be learning about the waste generated in the cafeteria and the things we can do to reduce that amount. To help visualize how much trash students generate during lunch each day, we will "dumpster dive" and sort through some of the trash bags and see what we find. I think that what we will find will shock you. After sorting through the trash, we'll talk about the many things we can do to reduce the amount of trash we generate and increase the amount of waste that we recycle. We'll also talk about waste-free lunches and will make a fabric snack bag.

We'll summarize our results in a future post and talk about some of things we can do to reduce the amount of waste we generate.

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Chesterfield Observer Article About WES Green Club

The Chesterfield Observer has a nice article about local elementary schools' efforts to protect our environment. Many Chesterfield County schools are joining in the action. Here is what the article mentioned about Woolridge Elementary School. Click HERE to read the full article and learn about what's being done at other local elementary schools.

Woolridge Elementary
The “Go Green” initiative at Woolridge Elementary is beginning its third year. “Each classroom has recycling bins for paper and plastic, and we have a giant bin outside [the school] that is sponsored by the PTA,” said Raye McKissick, fourth-grade teacher and one of two teacher coordinators for the program.

Along with kindergarten teacher Debbie Pinkston and parents Kim Owens and Jay Yeman, McKissick keeps the various recycling efforts at Woolridge running smoothly. In addition to the paper and plastic recycling, they’ve overseen a catalog cancelling contest to see which class could get the most parents to give up their catalog subscriptions, and encouraged recycling at their fall festival pumpkin-lighting night. They’ve collected used-up glue sticks, which are sent to a recycling program sponsored by Walmart, and saved juice box pouches, which are sent to Terra Cycle, a recycler that pays the school for the pouches. They are selling reusable grocery bags that will benefit both the environment and the school.

Yeman developed a Web site, www.gogreenwoolridge.blogspot.com, that includes tips for recycling and other go-green ideas.

They also reward the kids for their recycling success. “We have a ‘Green Class of the Month,’ where we recognize the class that has the most [green] things going on, such as having green plants, turning off the lights, keeping their recycling bin full,” McKissick said. Art teacher Wendi Hobbie made a trophy that the winning class keeps for the month.

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Recycling Plastic Bags

Plastic bags are everywhere. Although often quoted as consuming oil resources, most plastic bags are actually made from natural gas. The bad news is most plastic bags are not recycled. Part of the reason is because many local recycling agencies do not accept plastic bags. They are lightweight, fly out of the backs of recycling trucks, and become litter. They also jam up the recycling machines and cause expensive repairs. The good news is that most plastic bags are recyclable. Stores such as Ukrops, Walmart, Food Lion, Kroger and Whole Foods all accept plastic bags for recycling. Although the United States Environmental Protection Agency stated in 2000 that only 1% of plastic bags were recycled, significant attention resulted in a 700% growth in the recycling industry as new capacity led to a 7% rate.

When most people think of plastic bags, the first thing they think of are plastic grocery bags. But did you know that many other types of plastic bags can be recycled along with your plastic grocery bags as well? All of the following can be recycled right along with your plastic grocery bags.

• newspaper bags
• dry cleaning bags
• bread bags
• produce bags
• toilet paper, napkin, and paper towel wraps
• furniture wrap
• electronic wrap
• plastic retail bags (hard plastic and string handles removed)
• grocery bag
• zip lock bags (remove hard components)
• plastic cereal box liners (if it tears like paper do not include)
• Tyvek(no glue, labels, other material)
• diaper wrap (packaging)
• plastic shipping envelopes (no bubble wrap/remove labels)
• case wrap (e.g., snacks, water bottles)
• All clean, dry bags labeled #2 or #4.

There are some types of plastic bags that should NOT be included. The following are considered contaminants and could jeopardize recycling programs:

• NO food or cling wrap
• NO prepackaged food bags including frozen food bags (e.g., prewashed salad bags)
• NO film that has been painted or has excessive glue
• NO other bags or films
• NO bio-based or compostable plastic bags

So when going to the grocery store, it's preferred that you use reusable grocery bags. But a certain amount of plastic is unavoidable. So let's make sure to recycle all we can.

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Wasting Food in Our Schools' Cafeterias

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