Sunnyland
Elementary now creates 80 percent less trash to meet the requirements of the
Bellingham School District’s “Food to Flowers” program. The school district
wants to cut costs by decreasing its total trash output.
“We could get
Sunnyland to produce zero waste if everyone pitched in and did it right,” David
Wilson, a custodian for Sunnyland Elementary said.
Four years
ago, the school was emptying a 6-yard dumpster full of trash headed to the dump
every week. Now they are emptying a 2-yard dumpster every other week.
Bellingham
garbage costs $65 per month per cubic yard of space according to Rodd Pemble,
recycling manager for Sanitary Service Company Inc. For a school with a 6-yard
dumpster emptied twice a week, as Sunnyland Elementary was in the beginning of
2008, that is $745 per month, according to Pemble.
A 2-yard
dumpster emptied every other week with the “Food to Flowers” program will save
the district $5,820 per year for Sunnyland Elementary alone.
“We just
started with the recycling program where we would take out the cans and bottles
and stuff like that,” Wilson said. “That got us down to a 5-yard dumpster and
then a 4-yard dumpster in 2009.”
The next step
was called “Food to Flowers” which removed food waste from the trash. Napkins,
milk cartons, paper towels and leftover food are now taken to be broken down
into compost. The program began with Alderwood, Lowell and Roosevelt
Elementaries in a month-long test before expanding district-wide. This program
reduced these school’s was by 50 percent according to the Sanitary Services
website.
Sunnyland
Elementary now has one large recycling tote for aluminum, six Toter cans for
compost and the 2-yard dumpster for trash instead of a 6-yard dumpster for it
all.
The district
plan is based on Sanitary Service’s “FoodPlus! Recycling” program focused on
recycling organic waste. This is an expansion of the service that once only
accepted yard waste but now takes away all compostable items, even meat and
bones.
Items that
were once tossed in the trash are now being reused. The custodians said that
plastic used to take up a lot of garbage space.
“We get those books and magazine wrapped up in plastic and they would
just go straight to the trash,” Wilson said. “Now we separate that and send it
to the recycling site instead.”
Plastic
bottles are made from different materials than other types of plastic. The
recycling plant separates plastic into three types; bottles, hard plastic (caps
and containers) and film plastics (Ziploc bags and plastic wrap) which are
composed of different types of materials. The three groups are baled separately
and shipped to processors that will melt the material down for purchase by
plastic manufacturers to be reused.
The Sunnyland
Elementary custodians now fill up a 60-gallon trash bag full of film plastics
every other week.
Sunnyland
Elementary is the only school in the district able to reduce their dumpster
size and waste output by over 80 percent, according to Wilson. The school also
has 200 more students than other elementaries in the district.
“We are the
biggest little school in Bellingham with the largest green program,” said Scott
Sorensen, a custodian for Sunnyland Elementary.
When the
program was first introduced, Wilson researched programs for schools across the
country to find what would work best. He decided that the first thing to do was
break down what the school could do on its own. Wilson then began to visit
Sunnyland classrooms over several weeks to educate students and teachers about
what the school was trying to accomplish.
The students
seemed to catch on much faster than the staff according to Sorensen.
“It was pretty
difficult at first to start the [recycling and compost] programs at the
school,” said Mary Anne Stuckart, Sunnyland Elementary principal. “We needed to
put pictures up to show what should go in each bin and I still sometimes have
to ask Dave.”
A student at
the elementary took what was happening at the school home with him.
“There is a
kid here that told his grandma to start packing his sandwiches in wax paper
instead of in Ziploc bags because we can send the paper to compost,” Sorensen
said.
The “Food to
Flowers” program has yet to become part of any Sunnyland teacher’s curriculum.
“With WASL
tests and science fairs to worry about, I know it’s hard for the teachers,”
said Sorensen. “I think it could easily be taught as science though.”
The custodians
of Sunnyland Elementary have two goals for next school year.
“We hope to get our waste level down to zero percent,
or close to it, by this time next school years,” Wilson said.
A zero percent
waste level means no trash is picked up and taken to the dump. In order to
accomplish this, items such as metallic chip bags and Capri Sun juice boxes
would have to be eliminated from the school menu.
“Another goal
we have is to sort the trash from parties more,” Sorensen said. “It’s difficult
to think about how to get rid of the stuff while teachers have to worry about
planning the party.”
The way to
solve this is to ask for trash cans to be moved into the classroom for that
day, according to Sorensen. Teachers are also encouraged to use biodegradable
or recyclable utensils and packaging for parties.
