Green Team targets lunchtime leftovers
March 9, 2009
By Christopher Huber
Students volunteer to ensure diners remember to recycle
Jack Sansing (left) and Noah Springborn (right), fourth-grade volunteers, with second-grader Katie Springborn standing behind food-recycling bins, are two of Cascade Ridge Elementary’s Green Team members who direct their classmates to use the correct bins after lunch. By Christopher Huber
Cascade Ridge Elementary School fourth-grader Noah Springborn wasn’t thrilled about having to wear a bright-green tie-dyed apron in front of the school’s students at lunchtime. But he was willing to do it for a worthy cause.
So was his “Green Team” partner, fellow fourth-grader Jack Sansing, who said he actually kind of likes the custom-made garb.
It’s not worth it, “if you don’t have something that stands out and looks cool,” said teacher Lynette Springborn.
Third- and fourth-grade volunteers have been wearing the aprons as they direct their classmates to use the proper recycling bins after lunch. It’s all part of the school’s new food recycling and composting program. Cascade Ridge is the sixth school in the Issaquah School District to implement the program, according to district Resource Conservation Manager John Macartney. The school is working with Cedar Grove Composting.
During the first week, students learned to separate their lunch scraps and packaging into five different bins — leftover milk, milk cartons (wax-coated), paper-glass-plastic, garbage and food scraps. Even the collection bags are compostable.
Based on the district’s past success with the program, Cascade Ridge stands to save some money, as well as reduce garbage output.
When finished with lunch, a student recycles the food into the bins. It is transported to the larger collection bins outside of the building and is eventually hauled away by a Cedar Grove truck. Within 60 days, Macartney said, the food becomes compost.
“If done properly, we can actually reduce the garbage costs,” he said. “The overall actual garbage and recycling costs would be decreased.”
In the 2006-2007 school year, four district schools, including Sunny Hills Elementary, saved the district nearly $17,000 in disposal costs, according to the King County Solid Waste Division Web site.
Macartney emphasized the educational benefit of the program.
“We get better overall recycling with this program in place,” he said. “It just becomes more of a culture.”
Cascade Ridge is the second school to start the program this year — Issaquah’s Clark Elementary kicked off its food-recycling program Feb. 18. The goal, Macartney said, is to have all 23 of the district’s schools add the composting program to their traditional recycling practices.
“We expect this to expand next year to include probably every building,” he said.
District officials have been working with King County’s Green Schools Program to conserve natural resources through recycling practices and student education since late 2007, Macartney said. But the district has “been in recycle mode” since 2005, he said.
The district began the food recycling program at Issaquah Valley Elementary and Issaquah Middle School, he said, and it just grew from there.
“One of the primary reasons for doing this is because it’s the right thing to do,” he said, but also “taking care of our planet and educating kids on how to handle recyclables — so many of the haulers in our community take food waste.”
At Cascade Ridge, four volunteers from each third- and fourth-grade class (about 40 total) are in charge of manning the bins during lunchtime, a week at a time, Lynette Springborn said.
Some of the young students seemed to be happy to take charge.
“Someday, our world will be a better place if you just start with a small difference,” Sansing said after he donned his freshly dyed “Green Team” apron.
Reach Reporter Christopher Huber at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.issaquahpress.com.
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