Green Up Our Schools

California Elementary

Green Up Our Schools member from 2008 to 2012

During the 3 years of the program, each school creates their own "green" plan to recycle more and waste less.

View photos of all the green activities in action.


Waste Reduction Projects Each school must complete a minimum of two waste reduction projects per year. Click on each title to view a more detailed description.

Year 1
Paper Towel Reduction Campaign Launched a campaign to raise awareness on the use of paper towels in school, creating a slogan and tracking usage patterns. (Learn more.)	2008-2009
Zero Waste Lunch Campaign Taught students how to bring a lunch from home without any disposable packaging. Created a reward system for kids who brought food in reusable containers with no disposable packaging. (Learn more.)	2008-2009
Reusable Dishes for Staff Lounge Placed a set of reusable bowls, plates, cups, and silverware in the staff lounge to reduce the waste created by disposables. (Learn more.)	2008-2009
Year 2
Worm Bin Composting Implemented classroom worm composting bins for vegan food waste, constructed in 14-gallon containers kept indoors. Students are able to witness the decomposition process firsthand as food turns into soil. (Learn more.)	2009-2010
Double-Sided Copying Campaign Emphasized the importance of conserving paper by printing on both sides of the page whenever possible. Students created an education campaign and tracked actual paper usage. (Learn more.)	2009-2010
Year 3
Terracycle Upcycling Collected common lunchroom waste items such as Capri Sun pouches and mailed them in for recycling. Terracycle provides pre-paid shipping labels and pays per item collected. (Learn more.)	2010-2011
Lunch Tray Recycling Created a system for recycling clean cardboard lunch trays. (Learn more.)	2010-2011
Scratch Paper Reuse Boxes Created scratch paper reuse boxes for paper that had only been used on one side. Placed in every classroom and tracked the usage. (Learn more.)	2010-2011
Year 4
Zero Waste Lunch Campaign A Zero Waste Lunch Campaign involves teaching students how to bring a lunch from home without any disposable packaging. Reusable containers take the place of plastic bags. (Learn more.)	2011-2012
Commercial Composting Commercial composting is a service provided to the school by an outside company, similar to recycling. Hundreds of pounds of food & paper waste are hauled to a facility that processes it back into soil. The weekly collection system can handle the full volume of organic waste that comes out of the lunchroom, bathrooms, and classrooms. (Learn more.)	2011-2012

Waste Assessment Results

Every school in the program performs at least one waste assessment every year. This activity helps to show progress made and areas that still need improvement.

Percentage of Trash categorized as Recyclable (Lower is better!)*
	58%	33%	25%	20%	55%	100%	30%
	2008 (Fall)	2009 (Spring)	2010 (Spring)	2010 (Fall)	2011 (Spring)	2011 (Fall)	2012 (Spring)
Year
*The presence of recyclable materials in the trash means students & teachers are not correctly sorting items they throw away. The lower the percentage, the more successful the recycling program.


Back to All Schools

We can only think of good things to say about this program. The network is great. Being connected to other schools in the community is really valuable.