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Be Green for Your End-Of-Year Clean
A few simple steps and you can walk away for the summer knowing that your classroom is clean and green.
It's tempting to rip that border from around the bulletin board and throw it in the trash, but many items in the classroom can be recycled or even reused next year. With a little care, that border, poster, half opened package of construction paper and numerous other items that have accumulated can be kept and used again.
When cleaning out your space, ask the school custodians for additional clear bags for paper items or coordinate a paper recycling day where large bins for paper and cardboard collection are placed in each hallway. Don't forget large rigid plastic items such as plastic baskets, broken plastic rulers, metal staplers, pencil sharpeners or hole punches can be recycled in the blue bin. For a reminder on more easy to recycle school items, download our school checklist.
After speaking with your custodians, send an end-of-year memo to faculty and staff reminding them about recycling procedures. Quickly modify a
template letter from our website
to email your colleagues.
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Foam Trays Fade Away
NYC schools began transitioning to compostable plates in May, replacing non-recyclable Styrofoam trays with plates made from 100% renewable materials. All schools will be on board the new program by September, replacing some 850,000 foam trays on a daily basis, thanks to the Urban School Food Alliance.
Learn more.
Important Note: Schools enrolled in the DSNY Organics Collection program must place trays inside the organics bin. School are encouraged to stack trays before placing them in the brown bins to maximize space. Trays not placed in the organics bin will be collected as landfill trash. In schools not enrolled in Organics Collection, soiled trays must be placed with your landfill items; they are not collected for paper recycling.
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| Hugues Recamier (left) and Iris Lugo-Becker (right) with P.S. 77/198 Green Team students |
Schools in Shared Building Form Joint Green Team
A partnership that has worked wonders and a model for other campus buildings
.
Common spaces shared between schools, such as cafeterias, generate a lot of waste and successful recycling requires all building occupants to do their part. As a result, students from both schools in Manhattan Campus 198 - the Lower Lab School (P.S. 77) and Isidor and Ida Straus School (P.S. 198M) - created a joint Green Team!
Iris Lugo-Becker, Sustainability Coordinator and Social Worker for both schools, says of this unique partnership, "This is the first time that between both schools we have twenty Green Team leaders
!" She notes that in their first semester working together, "students have been collaborating on different recycling activities with a lot of enthusiasm," including making 'upcycled' crafts out of their recyclables for a school display, labeling over 150 green paper recycling bins for the entire building, and designing posters promoting the "Race to Recycle" relays they are hosting at their end-of-semester Field Days.
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| Italian Immigrants collect recyclables in 1896. |
Recycling is American History
Connect recycling to more than Science
Did you know recycling has been a part of our nation's history from the very beginning? Here are some fun facts about the origins of waste management and recycling in NYC, and which may serve as a fun way to engage students in recycling:
* Immigrants who came to New York City from 1840 to 1895 helped to collect recyclables in the streets, as many other jobs were not available to them.
* In 1895, NYC started the very first modern large-scale Department of Sanitation, led by Colonel George E. Waring, who was known as the "Apostle of Cleanliness." Workers wore bright white uniforms, cleaning up the streets and collecting sorted items. Modernizing urban sanitation helped to accommodate the city's large population growth, and improved public health.
* Henry Ford and George Washington Carver helped to industrialize America through recycling many materials in the factory and on the farm. They advocated creating locally made products and recycling any bi-products (left over material from manufacturing) to shorten the supply chain.
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A Sustainability Coordinator's Path to Greening a School for the Arts
Amy Musick of Brooklyn's New Voices Middle School
When Amy discusses her work, she acknowledges everyone played a role, but she said her students are her partners. Of their many projects, they created a presentation and an original poem set to music entitled "Stop the Trash, Start the Caring." For Earth Day, the Visual Art studio students designed recycling bins and the Graphic Arts students created tree-care signs that were placed in tree-beds around the school. Amy says: "
It is my responsibility as an educator to inspire and motivate students to do their part to make their school community a more beautiful and healthy place to live. By being a Sustainability Coordinator I have been presented the opportunity to support and encourage our future leaders: it is an honor and privilege."
Amy adds, "by simply asking the right questions, students will come up with creative ideas and solutions on their own. Their ideas far surpassed my expectations!"
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First Annual Sustainability Summit
On Friday, July 24, 2015 the NYC DOE Office of Sustainability will host the first annual Sustainability Summit at the Walton Educational Campus in the Bronx, NY. The summit is intended to be a forum, discussion, instructional and networking place for Sustainability Coordinators, Administrators, Teachers, Custodian Engineers and school green team members. Join us!
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Summer Stop 'N' Swaps Across NYC
B
ring clean, reusable, portable items you no longer need and take home something new-to-you. No need to bring something in order to take something. No furniture or large items, please.
For a complete list of upcoming swaps, see our
website
.
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Field Trip to SIMS Recycling Facility
I
n need of a field trip for a summer class or camp? Want to show your students where the metal, glass, plastic, and cartons recycled in NYC are sent? Then
schedule a free tour
of the brand new Sims Municipal Recycling facility in Sunset Park, Brooklyn! Seeing is believing, and your students won't forget this incredible experience.
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GrowNYC
offers more than great recycling programs for your school. Learn about GrowNYC's other
environmental education
programs: Greenmarket Youth Education, Grow to Learn and Learn It, Grow It, Eat It!
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