November 2009 Green Team News

The Green Team has grown by leaps and bounds this year, and has been busy working on all kinds of exciting ways to make Robious Elementary a little greener! In October, our classroom recycling program got back into full swing and students have already diverted just shy of 500 pounds of waste from local landfills. They also threw away about 700 pounds of waste, for a diversion rate of approximately 40%. For comparison sake, last October the students recycled slightly over 500 pounds and tossed slightly over 1,400 pounds in the trash, for a diversion rate of about 27%. We’ll continue to monitor monthly to see if this year we can exceed the end-of-year diversion rate of 41% established last year! How can you help? Remind your children to reduce, reuse, and recycle… and send them to school with things that are reusable or recyclable, as opposed to disposable. And set a good example at home, of course!

In honor of America Recycles Day (November 15th), we’ll be launching a few other programs, too: Crayon Recycling is back! There is a “broken crayon” box near the front office. Last year, in just 2 short months, we collected about 20 pounds of broken crayons that were recycled into new fun shapes by a local girl scout troop, and donated to local doctor’s office waiting rooms. We’ll also offer a collection bin for Glue Stick Case Recycling. This box will be strategically located right near the broken crayon box in the front office area. Teachers will also keep a small box in the classroom to aggregate spent glue stick cases, to minimize the number of trips up to the front of the school. In the cafeteria, we’ll begin collecting empty Capri-Sun pouches to send for recycling through Terracycle (http://www.terracycle.net/). So, if you send Capri Sun in your child’s lunch, be sure to tell them to be on the lookout in mid-November for a special “Capri Sun” recycle can in the lunch room. And, finally, the PTA had sufficient positive feedback about last year’s “Walking Bus” that we’ll sponsor 4 more this year. The first will be on November 13 (see sidebar). Hope to see you out walking… let’s hope for nice weather! Oh, and if you participate in the Wednesday morning Running Club, you could consider starting your own “Walking Wednesday” routine and consider it a nice lengthy warm-up! I would love to hear your feedback about your Walking Bus (or Walking Wednesday) experience – what has worked well, what obstacles have you overcome (and how?), what obstacles have you not been able to overcome, what’s the best day of the week for your family to walk, or anything else you want to share on this topic!