Recycling and Waste Management

Recycling is one of the easiest, most effective, and most rewarding challenges you can take on in your school! Recycling paper, for example, can save vast proportions of landfill space considering it constitutes 40% of the waste we generate according to the EPA. But that’s only paper—think of how much waste we generate by other means: The EPA estimates that 14 million tons of plastic, 13.2 million tons of glass, and 2 million tons of aluminum waste were produced in 2006. Imagine the recycling potential for 29.2 million tons of non-paper products Recycling aluminum alone can save 95% of the energy needed to produce it in the first place.

But these are just items we normally think of when we think of recycling. Computers and electronics can also be recycled, along with hazardous waste, batteries, and organic materials such as scrap food and lawn trimmings.

Also, remember that recycling is only one of the three R’s. What are the three R’s? Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

Reduce means use less to begin with so that less waste is created in the first place. For example, check out this resource about packing a no waste lunch. Reuse means find ways to reuse items before you even think about recycling them, and when you need to buy new items, reuse material that’s already been created by buying recycled products. For a guide on reusing what you have, visit RecycleWorks, and for a guide on buying recycled items and sorting out manufacturers’ claims about those products, read this guide on Buying Recycled. The best policy you can have in your school is to make the third R, Recycle, the last resort in the three-step process of reducing waste.

The Center for Environmental Education is working on finding more resources to help you with the three R’s, but in the meantime, visit Recycle Works, a website with lots of great ideas for reducing waste in schools, managing waste through compost and school gardens, establishing more effective recycling programs at your school, and reusing creatively. Also, check out the EPA’s list of items that should be recycled and information about each of them. If you have trouble finding a recycling center or service for the items you want to recycle, visit Earth 911, simply type in your zip code and they will tell you all about places or services in your area where you can recycle specific items.

Bring recycling into your classroom! Check out the games and activities that teach kids about recycling offered by the EPA. For students who are a little older, in grades 6-8, consider Toxic Technology, an activity where students learn about and then conduct their own research on the toxicity of discarded computers.

Do you want comprehensive action in your school now? Do you want an all inclusive program that will guide you through the process? Then consider WasteWise, a free program offered by the EPA. It is a flexible commitment based program where you reduce the overall waste in your organization based on your own goals, time, and motivation. As part of the program, you are included in a network with other organizations where you can bounce ideas off each other and share important lessons about successes and failures.