Case Study: The Island School

Waste Reduction at The Island School

Waste Audit

Grade: Elementary
City: Bainbridge Island
County: Kitsap
District: Independent
Category: Recycling & Waste Reduction
Date: Jan 15, 2010

Kids, teachers, and Green Teamers gathered in the Island School shed with piles of smelly garbage for Trash Audit Day to sort, weigh, and analyze all the trash and recycling discarded during one 24-hour period. The audit gave us a baseline to measure our trash reduction program throughout the year and beyond and hands-on awareness of our consumption habits.

• There were 42 plastic wrappers (210 a school week, 924 a school month, and 8,316 a school year).

• There were 34 plastic sandwich bags (170 a school week, 748 a school month, and 6,732 a school year).

• About 20 percent of the waste we generate goes to compost, and 28 percent gets recycled.

• We generated 27 pounds of trash (135 pounds a week, 600 pounds a month).

The Island School Makes Long-Term Changes

1. We greened up The Island School Carnival, generating about one-half the amount of garbage we did last year.

2. We are greening the Cultural Study.

3. We are making changes to the waste policy, asking kids to add used hand towels to the compost bin instead of the trash; emphasizing the school pack it in pack it out lunch policy in classrooms; creating a poster campaign to educate kids and parents on how to reduce waste (eliminating prepackaged foods, eliminating use of plastic baggies); fostering a Kids Konserve campaign, encouraging parents to buy reusable lunch items from Kids Konserve (which makes eco-friendly options from recycled materials); and encouraging double-sided copying.

4. We're eliminating back porch trashcans to cut out 368 trash bags per year.

Additional Steps

In addition to repeating the waste audit in a few months to assess improvements, we are making the following additional (nonwaste) changes to school procedures and policy:

1. turning down the boiler from 68 degrees to 66 degrees and implementing a night setting;

2. installing power strips to enable easy turn off of electronics;

3. institutionalizing a policy for purchasing eco-friendly materials and hiring eco-conscious contractors; and

4. implementing a no-idle rule for carpool.

Overall, we have reduced our energy bill by 13400 kilowatts, reduced our oil bills, and reduced our trash volume and the costs associated with pickup.

By Sarah Lane & Julie Hall, Green Team Parent Liaison

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