School Programs

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

Adolfo Camarillo High School, Ventura County
Environmentally conscious Adolfo Camarillo High School 2010 graduating senior, Stephanie Garcia noticed that the school was recycling cans and bottles but not paper. Although shy, Stephanie was determined and set a goal to recycle paper as well as to educate fellow students of their impact on the environment.

Initially underestimating the amount of work involved, Stephanie set out to accomplish her task. She started the program on a small scale by placing 32-gallon bins in four campus wings and placing cardboard bins in classrooms. During this process, she met with Principal Glen Lipman, who advised her to seek help from one of the school's science instructors, Susan Thee. Additionally, Stephanie contacted City of Camarillo‘s recycling coordinator Roger Pichardo, providing him with her recycling program ideas. From these efforts, the school’s Environmental Club was created with Ms. Thee serving as the advisor.

Parent Lori McVicker, who has a daughter attending the school, helped Stephanie connect with RSI Shredding Inc. (RSI), which provides free collection containers, pickup and delivery of paper to a recycling facility and secure onsite shredding. RSI, via the Environmental Club, pays the school $20 per ton of recycled paper. The collected proceeds may be used to fund environmental activities.

Although she graduated in June 2010, Stephanie’s vision is to see the program expand to cover the entire campus and to remain in place years into the future.

Harding Elementary, Santa Barbara County
Harding Elementary's model zero-waste cafeteria program has earned it the "Outstanding Environmental Education Award" from Looking Good Santa Barbara, which is a City of Santa Barbara Environmental program that honors residents and community members who reduce visual blight and promote recycling through special projects. The Harding School Environment Committee implements initiates to promote a healthy learning environment, including:

• Site-based cafeteria serving homemade meals from locally-grown and organic produce
  
• School-wide recycling
  
• Zero-waste kitchen and cafeteria
  
• Environmental education classes for students
  
• Standards-based physical education classes for students
  
• Nutrition education classes for students
  
• Student Council monthly neighborhood clean-up services
  

Oak Grove Elementary School
At Oak Grove Elementary School in Sonoma County, recycling is taken very seriously—and the students do it well. With some assistance from worms and pigs, students have reduced their solid waste output by nearly 90 percent.

Park View Center School
The fifth grade class at Park View Center School in Simi Valley was awarded the 2001 Jiminy Cricket’s Environmentally Challenge grand prize. Their environmental project incorporated all 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle), as well as composting. The students’ project involved reconstructing a school worm farm to reduce school cafeteria food waste and establishing a permanent recycling area for school paper, plastic, and other items. Their "reuse" efforts resulted in vermicompost for the school garden from the worm farm. By diverting cafeteria food waste to their worm farm, the worms produced soil-enriching casings within weeks for use in the school garden. Moreover, the students created new paper for art projects from recycled paper.

Pine Hill Elementary School
Recycling is now easier and more convenient than ever at Pine Hill Elementary in the South Bay Union Elementary District in Humboldt County. This school provides a great example of establishing a certified recycling collection program on a school site to serve the school and the entire community. Through this innovative program, several paper products can be combined for recycling (which means less sorting) and recycling materials can be taken to the collection site at Pine Hill School on the first Monday of each month from 7:30-8:30 a.m. California Redemption Value (CRV) recyclables are sold for their redemption value and all proceeds are donated to Pine Hill School. All recyclables are collected and transported by members of Humboldt Bay Service Corps (Americorps). By recycling at the Pine Hills School, community members not only divert waste from local landfills, but they also make a donation to school.

Saticoy Elementary
Saticoy Elementary, a school within the Los Angeles Unified School District, gets its name from the Chumash word “Sa’aqtik’oy”, which means “Sheltered from the Wind”. This was the name given to the largest Chumash Indian settlement in California. The settlement had unusually fertile soil which generated enough food for the Chumash to thrive. Saticoy Elementary continues the tradition of their name sake. While they are certainly not sheltered from the wind, Saticoy is by far, the largest recycler of the schools located in the City of Los Angeles. Their commitment to recycling is inspiring other schools to thrive in their ecological efforts.

• Sample policies
• School waste hauling contracts
• Shasta County Department of Resource Management Community Education

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