Recycling station

By:

Goal: To increase the HTES’s recycling rate; to make recycling receptacles visible to parents, students and staff demonstrating our schools commitment to being “Green” and sustainability; to encourage recycling by making it convenient

Background:

HTES implemented a recycling program in March 2012.  Since the implementation, we have looked for ways to continuously improve and increase our recycling rate.  In the 2012/2013 school year, HTES entered a plastic bag recycling contest and won! We collected over 100 Lbs of plastic bags from our students, parents and staff.  After the contest was over, we continued to receive plastic bags and continued to appropriately recycle them at a local Whole Foods or Walmart.  In the 2013/2014 school year we had to move the recycling receptacle to a location that was not as visible to the parents coming in and out of the front office.  The result..significantly less bags collected.  HTES also collects electronics as a fundraiser and recycles them through a Cartridges for kids program http://www.cartridgesforkids.com/  In the 2012/2013, the program generated $429.  The receptacle for the electronics collected is kept in a closet not visible to parents or staff.

Action Taken:

Parents met with our principal to discuss ways to improve the recycling and make it more convenient and visible to staff, students and staff.  We decided to find a receptacle that could be kept in the front entrance way of the school.  Our principal’s assistant found containers on www.demco.com  that would suit our needs.  The total cost was $553. We decided to collect and recycle three items 1)batteries 2) plastic bags 3)Electronics (cellphones, laptops, dvds, etc). We initiated this in January 2014.  We advertised our new recycling bins via the weekly electronic newsletter, facebook, and the morning announcements.  We have one parent volunteer who collects the items and takes them to the appropriate recycling location for each of the three items.

Results:

Our school held an electronics recycling competition.  And there was a massive response. Over 300 individual items were turned in - everything from inkjet and laser cartridges, cell phones and video games to ipads, MP3s, Playstations and laptops.  A total of SIX jam-packed (and HEAVY!) boxes have been shipped off to the Recycling hub at Waste Management and over 80 pounds (yes we weighed the boxes!!) of electronics have been saved from going to landfill thanks to the thoughtfulness of our HTES family. Our bins for plastic bags and batteries continue to be filled and we think the location and accessibility have contributed to our success.