![[logo] US EPA](http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
How to Reduce Waste in Your School
Follow these steps for a successful waste reduction program:
- Organize a team
- Identify your waste
- Evaluate your options
- Develop a budget and raise money for your program
- Identify markets and transportation for collected items
- Educate participants
- Implement the program
- Monitor, track, and measure progress
- Share the results and promote success
- Assess results and re-evaluate program
From paper and computers to food scraps and yard waste—schools make tons of waste. On average, a child bringing a brown bag lunch to school everyday generates 67 pounds of waste per school year. That can add up to 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-size school!
In an effort to help schools, we recently developed an easy-to-use guide to start, or expand, a waste reduction program. The toolkit is based on the four rules of waste reduction: reduce, reuse, recycle, and buy recycled.
In addition to identifying 10 steps for becoming waste-free, Tools to Reduce Waste in Schools provides many easy-to-implement waste reduction activities and a variety of resources that can be accessed for additional information and support.
By implementing a waste reduction program, teachers and schools administrators can create opportunities to teach kids about the importance of taking care of their community, and about how our decisions impact our environment. Further, a waste reduction program can potentially lower a school’s waste disposal costs and reduce expenditures for office supplies, equipment, and other purchases.
We are not alone in our effort to encourage effective waste management in schools. Many states and school districts have “Green School” programs. The Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education, a nonprofit association, for example, has a “Green School Awards Program,” which recognizes schools that include environmental education in lesson plans, model best management practices, and address community environmental issues. More than 115 Maryland schools have been “Green School” certified by the organization.
Tools to Reduce Waste in Schools exemplifies the type of initiative encouraged by the Resource Conservation Challenge within its focus on Municipal Solid Waste Recycling.
For More Information:
- EPA's Tools to Reduce Waste in Schools Guide
- EPA's Resources for Waste Education
- EPA’s Environmental Education Web site
- Earn National Recognition – Schools or school districts implementing or expanding a waste reduction program can gain national recognition through initiatives such as EPA’s WasteWise program.
- Resource Conservation Challenge national priority area - Municipal Solid Waste Recycling
- Maryland
Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education –
Green School Program
