• Get Support: Obtain top-level support from the school's administration, your school district's operation and maintenance staff and your school's custodial staff. Discuss how the program can reduce costs for the school by lowering their disposal costs. Make sure your school currently has a free large recycling dumpster on-site next to the trash dumpster and is appropriately labeled.
  
  
• Organize a "Green Team": Form a "Green Team" within your school to help with training and implementation of the recycling program. The best teams have students, teachers, principals, administration, and parents who are willing to help. Organize a schedule and timeline for working to implement the recycling program together.
  
  
• Conduct a Waste Audit: Go through a sample of your school's waste with your "Green Team" to determine the composition and volume of materials, what materials can be recycled, re-used, reduced, or eliminated and what recyclable material can be substituted for non-recyclable materials currently in use. This site explains several options for performing a school waste audit: recycleworks.org. Go to your city or county's appropriate region on this site to see what materials we collect with our curbside or bin pick-up. Try to estimate roughly how much of each recyclable material is being generated. This site can be helpful in doing so: earth911.org. Most schools generate a high amount of used text books that become outdated and are obsolete. Please don't throw them away! This site has some very good information on what you can do with your used text books: ciwmb.ca.gov.
  
  
• Check what hazardous materials your school generates. The Sonoma County Eco-Desk site will give you all the information you will need on how to properly dispose of hazardous wastes such as fluorescent light bulbs and toner cartridges: recyclenow.org.
  
  
• Delegate Tasks: Organize your team so that each member has a role. A school recycling program should involve the students as much as possible so they can learn and benefit from this environmental model. Have the students within the "Green Team" act as coordinators to organize the rest of the student body to pitch in and do their part in creating public awareness, trash monitoring, and emptying the future recycling crates into the big recycling dumpster.
  
  
• Start Simple: Choose 1-3 materials to recycle and then work up. For example, focus on recycling paper and cardboard first. And once your program is functioning smoothly, your team can work to include lunch-time recyclables such as bottles, cans, and plastic. By starting small, you won't overwhelm the students and staff and will be able to effectively measure the success of your initial recycling program.
  
  
• Call us for Containers and Outreach: Now it is time to call us, your waste and recycling hauler to order FREE internal recycling crates for the classrooms as well as a large external recycling dumpster. If you have more questions or specific needs, we can send one of our recycling outreach coordinators to perform a walk through and assess your school. And after your classroom recycling has been established, you can look into ordering external recycling containers for lunchtime recycling. Here are a couple sites that offer affordable and quality containers: restockit.com & uline.com. Contact the appropriate customer service number for your area.
  
  
• Organize Collection of Recycling: Contact your school's custodial supervisor and make sure they are on the same page with the recycling. Offer educational materials or training if possible. If this part of the program is not managed correctly, recyclables can find their way back into the garbage receptacles. If the janitors won't cooperate with the recycling program, have the students within your "Green Team" organize a system for emptying the collection containers into the large recycling dumpster. This can be a privilege for the older classes and they may be allowed 10 minutes after lunch-time or after-school to perform these tasks. Make sure they understand just how important their involvement in the recycling process is and reward them when possible. You can also use them as your eyes and ears by having them inform you of any areas with major contamination (trash in the recycling) problems so the "Green Team" can follow-up with improved recycling education in these areas.
  
  
• Place all Recycling Containers next to Trash: All recycling receptacles must be placed next to the trash, or your recycling containers may be used for garbage. Make sure the recycling and trash containers are labeled appropriately. Have the students get involved by allowing them to decorate the bins with signs and stickers.
  
  
• Publicize! Now you are ready to start the recycling awareness campaign within your school. Work with your "Green Team" to organize a "Kick-Off" event such as a large assembly or lunch-time presentation. Send a memo to all staff about the new happenings. Make a brochure for students and staff to regularly refer. Our website features a general brochure that is easy to reference. If your school has a newsletter, make sure an article is featured about the new school recycling program with all specific details. Send a letter informing parents of the new recycling program. If it is possible, try to award students and staff that recycle the most. These sites have many valuable resources including posters on waste reduction and recycling: epa.gov & www.bottlesandcans.com
  
  
• Promote your Success: Continue to meet with the "Green Team" to discuss how the current recycling program is going and look for ways to improve. Make sure students and staff are aware of the benefits, such as cost-savings in your garbage bill and the increased rate of recyclable materials. Once your program has proven successful, the "Green Team" can work to include more recyclables and obtain more recycling containers to use within the cafeterias and at individual staff desks. As a possible incentive, the team can promote a beverage container recycling program at lunch and have separate containers for beverage containers only (aluminum, PET plastic bottles, and glass). They can haul these materials themselves to a recycling center or grocery store buy-back and obtain their CRV-Refund to use for school parties or to award those who recycle the most. www.bottlesandcans.com will help you determine how much cash value your beverage containers are worth and where the closest recycling or buy-back center is.
  
  
• Continue to work towards Waste Reduction at School: Post "Waste-Reduction" Tips around the administrative offices and include the 3 R's (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) within your school curriculum. This site has some good resources for staff and teachers:epa.gov.
  
  
• Look to the future and plan even more ways to reduce waste at school. Talk with teachers about implementing vermicomposting within classrooms. Refer them to this site for more information about vermicomposting: ciwmb.ca.gov. Work with the GATE students or the Garden Club to start composting on-site and then organize your "Green Team" to find containers for collecting vegetative food waste at lunch. For more information about composting, visit: ciwmb.ca.gov. As a result of your new recycling program, you will find that recyclables are being diverted from the waste stream and your school may now be able to reduce the size or quantity of the garbage dumpsters for a reduced-fee. Not only will you save money for your school, you will be educating the next generation on the value of caring for our community and environment.

For free stickers and information as well as a possible recycling presentation for your students and staff, contact our recycling coordinator @ (707)765-6424.