District Programs

The following are examples of successful school district waste reduction programs. Perhaps you can find aspects of these programs that will work in your district!

Berkeley Unified Davis Joint Unified Desert Sands Unified Lodi Unified School District Los Angeles Unified Oakland Unified

Ojai Unified Piner-Olivet Union Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Ukiah Unified Westmorland Union Elementary Windsor

Berkeley Unified School District
The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) in Alameda County is proving that environmentally friendly waste-reducing programs can save schools money. Through increased recycling during one school year, four Berkeley schools were able to decrease their garbage pickups, saving between $2,000 and $3,000. The district obtained recycling bins through a partnership with City of Berkeley. These bins are used for recycling aluminum and cardboard lunch trays, glass bottles and aluminum cans, and bins for mixed paper collection are placed in each classroom.

A dishwasher, reusable dishes and silverware were introduced at Oxford Elementary for classroom nutrition lessons and to save money by eliminating the need to purchase disposable plates and utensils, thereby cutting back on school garbage collection costs. In addition, this is a way of utilizing the cafeteria as an educational environment where students can learn how to reduce waste, recycle, and compost as called for by BUSD’s organic food policy (PDF, 53 KB).

Davis Joint Unified School District
The RISE program is a partnership between Davis Waste Removal; Davis Farm to School Connection, a project of the Davis Farmers Market Foundation; the RCC Group, LLC, an environmental management firm; the City of Davis; and the Davis Joint Unified School District.

The partnership works together to develop an effective recycling program with the ambitious goal to reduce the solid waste stream at the eight elementary sites by 50 percent. The partnership places Site Recycling Coordinators at each school, to help students recycle during breakfast and lunch. The students sort their waste by plastics, cans, glass, and paper before heading to the playground for recess. Students also sort their food waste - fruits and vegetables into a compost bucket, other food waste into the trash.

The components of the program:

• Recycle Coordinator works with principal, custodian and science teachers to organize program at each school.
• Students recycle their breakfast and lunch, with the help of coordinator, other students, lunch supervisors, or staff, depending on the school's setup.
• Recyclable materials are picked up by Davis Waste Removal.
• Compostable material (fruits and vegetables) are incorporated into the composting system at each school, as part of the school garden curriculum.

You can also read about the DJUSD’s efforts to pilot comprehensive food waste diversion projects at three elementary schools on CalRecycle’s food scrap diversion contracts site.

Desert Sands Unified School District
The Desert Sands Unified School District in Riverside County adopted a resolution and hired a full-time recycling clerk to launch a solid waste reduction program. Within a year, the program was implemented at the district’s administrative offices and at every school site. They started by focusing on the district offices and allowing sites to start their own programs when they were ready. All of the district's 21 schools recycle mixed paper and cardboard. For additional information about this program, see their Environmental Ambassador profile.

Lodi Unified School District
A cooperative team effort between Lodi Unified School District (LUSD) staff and California Waste Recovery Systems has helped make the recycling program a success. This program earned LUSD recognition from the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&A) Recycling Award Finalist. At the schools, student volunteers, recycling clubs, student government officers, and custodial staff all join forces to collect recyclable materials from the classrooms. The collected material is them placed in an onsite recycling dumpster.

Los Angeles Unified School District
The City of Los Angeles provides free recycling services to all Los Angeles Unified School District schools and their affiliated charter schools within the city limits. Schools participating in the program receive the following:

• Free recycling collection once a week
• 90 gallon blue bins for elementary schools
• 90 gallon blue bins and 6 yard bins for middle school and high schools only
• Free educational presentations and materials for all LAUSD teachers and 3rd -5th grade students
• Enrollment into the Recycling Excellence Awards that gives participating LAUSD schools the opportunity to win up to $2,000 in grant money for developing a green campus.

Expanding from a smaller pilot that only serviced 10 schools, the City of Los Angeles/ LAUSD Recycling Program (see related Facebook page) launched a campaign in January 2006 with the goal of servicing all LAUSD schools operating within the city limits. As of July 1, 2009, 542 schools enrolled into the program and were enjoying free recycling services. The program is voluntary with individual campuses deciding if they want to participate or not.

Oakland Unified School District
Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) recycles 41 percent of its waste and its goal is to get that figure up to 75 percent. Current recycling efforts save OUSD about $50,000 in monthly waste services costs. Imagine the savings when they hit the 75 percent mark! One novel feature of OUSD's recycling program is the Green Glove awards to show appreciation for and recognize environmental efforts made by the custodial staff.

Ojai Unified School District
Food for Thought is a nonprofit organization made up of concerned parents, educators, food growers and volunteers who first came together in spring 2002 to improve the nutritional status and food awareness of children in the Ojai Unified School District (OUSD) in Ventura County. The Food For Thought program addresses concerns raised by the organization's founders: They saw a need to raise awareness among the OUSD children and their parents about the importance of good childhood nutritional practices and the integral role of agriculture in their community. In addition, they wanted to enable children to reconnect to the land and environment that sustains them.

The Food For Thought organization developed five inter-related program components with associated curricula that integrate California State Academic Standards. Each grade level, from kindergarten to 6th grade, focuses on a different Food For Thought program element so that upon graduation from elementary school, a child has experienced all elements of the program: 1) nutrition education, 2) garden-based learning, 3) agricultural literacy through farm field trips, 4) advocating for fresh, local, seasonal produce in all school meals and 5) "5Rs” Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot and Rethink.

The 5Rs program began on June 24, 2008 when the OUSD unanimously adopted the "Green and Healthy Schools Resolution." This resolution established the development of a Green Committee and outlined a two-year plan for this committee to follow for energy conservation, minimization of waste and consumption, and use of green cleaning products, among other actions. As a result, a districtwide Green Committee was formed and meets four to six times per year. They set a timeframe to achieved their goals of two years in which the OUSD schools would model the “5Rs”—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot, and Rethink—to promote the kind of behaviors and actions needed for our children and families to live healthy, sustainable lives on Earth. The main focus of their plan was to expand a pilot waste-reduction program in three schools to all eight district campuses.

• Replicating the pilot's 5Rs curricula in each school (with the appropriate grades, courses, and teachers)
• Creating the uniform separation and collection system for each campus
• Collaborating with custodians
• Working with a local artist to build interesting waste reduction and recycling program collection stations
  
• Engaging students in ongoing waste measurement and monitoring activities,
• Developing broader sustainability curricula and training teachers in the 5Rs
  
• Developing service learning projects aimed at engaging students in reducing each school’s environmental footprint.

As they achieved this goal, other programs were developed:

• Earth Week was piloted and projects such as clothing swaps, produce stands, plastic bag fashion parades and assemblies were conducted at the various schools
• The Green Committee drafted an Environmentally Preferred Purchasing Policy which was adopted in June 2010.)
• Green cleaning products are now used in all classrooms district-wide.
• They are continuing environmental literacy work through the generosity of an anonymous foundation that awarded Food for Thought a two-year grant to build on these efforts through the addition of Green Team teachers who receive stipends for these efforts.
  
• The Green Committee continues to develop sustainability among other goals for the 5Rs component of the OUSD Food For Thought program.

For more information, please visit Food For Thought's contact page.

Piner-Olivet Union School District
The Piner-Olivet Union School District (POUSD) in Sonoma County manages a "mixed" recycling program in all of its schools which allows the schools to place all paper, cardboard, aluminum, tin, glass, plastic containers (# 1-7); and milk, juice, and soy/rice milk cartons into the same recycling container. Additionally, to promote the new program and increase participation within each school in the district, the waste hauler provides free staff training and recycling presentations to help educate the students. Because the district can now recycle so many materials and the recycling process has been made easier than ever, recycling rates are expected to soar. Additionally, since this recycling service is provided at no additional cost, the district anticipates reducing disposal service, saving disposal costs over the next few years. The new recycling program will help conserve and protect the environment, save the district money, and help educate the students on the importance of recycling. For more information, contact Becky Leffew, business manager, at (707) 522-3008.

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District
In going out to bid for a new contracted waste hauler in 2010, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District used the Request for Proposal process to enhance waste diversion efforts for the entire district. In addition to implementing a comprehensive recycling program at all school sites, the district required an educational component in the hauler’s agreement to allow for students, parents, and staff to have the opportunity to learn more about recycling at the school level and in their community. The contract, awarded to Crown Disposal, includes a source-separated recycling program, food and green waste composting, construction and demolition debris recycling, and an outreach and educational program for students, parents, and staff.

Many potential roadblocks were eliminated by first educating the school community of students, parents, and staff about the program. Custodial staff were trained to source-separate commodities in bags, based on whether the materials will be composted or sorted for recyclables. Crown Disposal’s materials recovery facility, Community Recycling & Resource Recovery, is willing to take material with a portion of contamination, which allows participants at the school sites to prepare materials for pick-up with a limited amount of sorting. Working in tandem with its unions, an informal agreement was reached that allowed the District to continue under its standing labor agreement with the custodial staff to provide this service. The service does not require any added work from custodial staff, as all waste material is placed in the appropriate bins (recyclables, green waste, or compostables).

Outreach efforts include collaborating with teachers and Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) in all of the district’s schools to spread awareness about the program by utilizing school newsletters to create a “Sustainability Corner” to educate students about the environment. Two clubs at Santa Monica High School, Solar Alliance and Team Marine have been instrumental in leading the awareness.

Additional sustainable programs that are being implemented in the district at this time include the use of green cleaning products, student gardens, participation in the Education and the Environment Initiative Program (a school curriculum program), compressed natural gas buses, installation of low flush urinals, and installation of photovoltaic panels at nine elementary schools. Also, the district’s Food and Nutrition Services includes a salad bar program. The Farmer’s Market Salad Bar Program link includes a video and guidebook to show other farmers' markets and local school districts how to develop a salad bar program. For more information about the district’s recycling and sustainability programs, contact the SMMUSD Purchasing Director, Virginia Hyatt, at (310) 450-8338, extension 70249 or vhyatt@smmusd.org. A sustainability section is currently under construction for inclusion at the district’s web site.

Ukiah Unified School District
The Ukiah Unified School District (UUSD) and the Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority (Authority) worked together to raise the bar for recycling in the district. In order to assist the City of Ukiah and the County of Mendocino in their efforts to divert 50 percent of their waste from landfills and to express the district’s commitment to resource conservation, the Ukiah Board of Education established specific recycling policies (PDF, 12 KB) in 1993. As a part of this partnership, the Waste Management Authority conducted an initial assessment of the district’s waste reduction efforts to serve as a baseline and continues to collect data to provide district officials with an annual evaluation of the program’s overall effectiveness. For example, the report for the 2000/2001 school year revealed that:

• School sites are now recycling an average of 30 percent of their solid waste.
• The district recycles 38 percent of its solid waste, up from 20 percent just one year ago.
• The district realized a 10 percent savings in waste removal costs despite an increase in local rates.

Additionally, a new program was implemented to compost food in school gardens.

The district's trash hauling contract during the 2001/2002 school year with Ukiah Solid Waste Systems put emphasis on recycling. The contract gave all district schools free single stream or "mixed" recycling service; the district's schools could mix all paper, cardboard, aluminum, tin, glass, plastic containers (# 1-7); and milk, juice, and soy/rice milk cartons in one container which made recycling easier because separation of recyclables was no longer required. "Mixed" recycling helped the district increase recycling rates, reduce garbage costs, and protect the environment. Also built into the waste contract was extensive recycling outreach to all school sites. This included personal school site visits, recycling training and presentations, meetings between haulers and school administrators, distribution of recycling posters and literature, and annual checkups.

The district’s commitment to waste reduction did not end with recycling alone. In fact, the district realized significant savings by incorporating waste prevention practices throughout the district operations. Two examples of such waste prevention practices include the one-time retreading of bus tires to reduce expenses and tire waste and the adoption of a two-sided copy paper policy with a goal of saving 30 percent reduction in paper purchases, for an estimated savings of $12,540.

Westmorland Union Elementary School District
Westmorland Elementary School, the only school within this district, provides an outstanding example of how to create local partnerships to reduce solid waste generation and to achieve substantial cost savings. The school’s comprehensive waste management plan includes programs to recycle cardboard, mixed paper, food and beverage containers, construction and demolition waste, food waste, green waste, books and computers, and hazardous waste. Additionally, these activities provide the perfect complement to the school’s on-going environmental education efforts. The school’s monitoring and evaluation activities also enable its staff to continually improve the program and to quantify its success. To learn more about this program, please read the full case study.

Windsor Unified School District
The Windsor Unified School District in Sonoma County implemented single-stream, or "mixed," recycling in its schools to reduce garbage costs, help the environment, and teach students about sustainability. In a collaborative effort between the district’s local hauler, custodial staff, students, teachers, and administrators, all district school sites have successful recycling programs in place. The collaboration ensures the day-to-day function of the program is carried out successfully. While the hauler is responsible for all outside recycling dumpsters and school education and training, help from students and custodial staff is needed to get recycled material from classrooms and break/lunch areas to the outside bins. The success of the recycling program is largely due to each school’s cooperation throughout the district.

With the new program, students and staff may mix all paper, cardboard, aluminum, tin, glass, plastic containers # 1-7; and milk, juice, and soy/rice milk cartons in one single container. All recycled material that has been "mixed" together is taken to the hauler’s high-tech sort machine for separation. Mixed recycling has made recycling easier for district schools and has helped them increase their recycling rates. For additional information, contact Dan Wells, district director of maintenance, at (707) 837-7796.

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