... in the School Cafeteria

  Our mission was to reduce the amount of landfill-bound waste generated by students at breakfast and lunchtime.

  We established a basic "Green Team" with Ms. Nani as the teacher coordinator, Maddie as the Green Team lead, and Barb Burrill as the trainer and facility coordinator.

  We started with a handful of 5th graders as our first recycling station monitors. Within a few weeks, the Green Team had grown to thirty-four 4th and 5th grade volunteers. Besides the recycling station monitoring duties described below,  students on the Green Team also visit classrooms to instruct all students about the new composting procedures.

How our new process works:
  We now have three main ways to dispose of lunchroom waste, either recycling (BLUE container), food waste (RED container), or garbage (BLACK container). We also have a colander for draining liquids and a small GREEN container for collecting non-recyclable cups and juice pouches for re-use.

BLUE - Recycling:  The rules for recycling at JSIS are different than what you use at home. The school district has a different contract for recycling pickup than what the city of Seattle offers with residential recycling pickup. What this means is that not everything that you can recycle at home can be recycled at school. In fact, the school district contract is very much like what Seattle residents could recycle about a year ago.

  So we can not recycle any plastic cups or containers other than "dairy" cups such as are used for yogurt or cottage cheese. Plastic food containers, foil, and foil containers are also not recyclable at school. The main items that we recycle in the lunchroom are milk cartons, juice boxes, yogurt containers, plastic bottles, and cans.

RED - Food waste: Any food scraps, plus paper napkins, paper towels, and brown paper bags, are collected in our new big red bin lined with a biodegradable bag. The food composting rules that we use at school are the same as those for food and yard waste for Seattle residents. Uncoated paper plates and cups (no wax or shiny plastic coating) can also be added to the compostable bin.

GREEN - Reusable items: Plastic cups that are not "dairy" cups are separated rather than thrown in the garbage. These cups are washed and offered for re-use for non-food use, such as art projects, to JSIS and LSA teachers. We also save foil juice pouches, such as Capri Sun juices, but collect all brands. We will use these juice pouches to make items such as purses, lunch bags, and tote bags to sell as a Green Team fundraiser.

BLACK - Landfill: Everything that doesn't fit into a category above ends up in a landfill-bound garbage dumpster. This includes ziplock plastic bags, plastic forks and spoons, straws, paper cups with plastic liners, coated paper plates.
 

  Our new food waste composting process is encouraged and supported by the Seattle Public Schools. Similar programs have been implemented in other Seattle public schools. 

  Ms. Nani is coordinating our initial group of thirty-four 4th and 5th graders who have learned how to monitor the multiple waste receptacles. Our new “Green Team” monitors work in pairs during lunch time to educate students and staff as to what goes in each bin. Since we have three lunch periods per day, we have two pairs of volunteers working a 30-minute shift each school day.

  Green Team members also make sure that bulky items, such as milk cartons, are flattened as much as possible so they take less space, as we pay for all waste services based on volume.

  As a result of the close attention of the Green Team composting monitors, we have been able to reduce our garbage – per lunch period – from six large bags to less than one. This is possible because in the past, the “recycled” collections were usually so contaminated with non-recyclables that they had to be disposed of as garbage.  In fact, as of October 19, our garbage dumpster service has been reduced from weekly to every other week, which will reduce garbage disposal expenses by one half. 

  All because we have our Green Team monitoring what goes in those colored bins.
 

... in the Teachers' Lounge

  The JSIS Teachers' lounge also has a new RED receptacle for food waste, in addition to a Recycling and Landfill container.
 

... at JSIS Special Events

  Expect to see the same RED, BLUE, GREEN, and BLACK receptacles at the next school-sponsored special event.