I am a parent volunteer for the green club at my son's elementary school. It was disbanded this year by the principal for unknown reasons. Because of this, I have shifted my attention to making larger changes at the school district level. I have sent the following e-mail to the school board as well as members of Chesterfield County's "recycling committee". I get feedback saying that it's a great idea and they'll "look into it", but nothing ever happens. I'd appreciate people's feedback on how best to get the county to provide recycling in all of its schools.
I am a parent volunteer with the Woolridge Elementary School Green Club, and over the past few years, this group of dedicated parent volunteers has completed many impressive environmental projects at our school. You can learn more about what we’ve accomplished by visiting our website at http://gogreenwoolridge.blogspot.com/... Volunteering at this capacity has led me to discover how much waste our schools generate and how there is tremendous room for improvement. Providing a comprehensive single-stream recycling program in every school in our school district would drastically reduce the amount of waste our schools generate and would save Chesterfield County Public Schools thousands of dollars every year. For the past few years, some elementary school PTAs have generously funded single-stream recycling programs for their respective schools because Chesterfield County does not provide such a program for its schools. It is a fact that Chesterfield County can dramatically reduce the size of every schools' waste dumpster(s) as well as reduce the number of trash pickups if a single-stream recycling program was provided at all of its schools. The savings realized by the smaller dumpster sizes and reduced pickup frequencies would easily pay for the cost of providing single-stream recycling services throughout the school district and still have plenty of savings left over.
Here is a quick example demonstrate the potential savings. According to records given to me by Chesterfield County and information available on the Internet, Harrowgate Elementary School currently has about 440 students and has (2) 6-yard dumpsters which are picked up 5 times per week. That's $155.90 spent every week and over $8,000 a year for just one school. This waste volume equates to 3.67 cubic yards of trash per student per week. Because of its previous recycling program, the approximately 760 students at Woolridge Elementary School generated only 1.06 cubic yards of trash per student per week. If Harrowgate Elementary School recycled, reduced its waste volume to a level similar to Woolridge's, and was served by (1) 6-yard dumpster like Woolridge, this would result in an estimated annual savings of $4,000. That's just one school! There are many other schools that also appear to be served by unnecessarily large dumpsters/too frequent pickup frequency. Imagine the money that could be saved if Chesterfield County and CCPS were serious about recycling and reducing waste at all of its 60+ schools.
I have been in contact with about a dozen other similarly sized elementary schools across the country who recycle and do not have daily trash pickup. Some of these schools have trash pickup only once or twice a week, and none of them have had problems with insects, rodents, or odors. The potential savings is amazing. Chesterfield County Public Schools should be open to any and all ideas to save money given the current budget situation. The implementation of a single-stream recycling program at all of its schools just makes too much sense not to do.