September | 2022 | We Future Cycle

WeFutureCycles mission is to create a generation of kids that care about their environment and that make changes in their personal behaviors every day for the better of all of us.

COVID requirement brought about big changes in schools. Some were very bad for the environment because lunches became mainly single serve packaged again.

But some changes were also wonderful and it is clear that these new trends remain.

COVID meant that water fountain at schools were closed and students could only refill a bottle at a station rather than drink directly from one. This lead to the fact that nearly all students are now carrying a reusable water bottle.

And those bottles are neatly parked outside the gym every day. Great optics!

White Plains School District has been running the WeFutureCycle program for 8 years now, most of the student have never seen anything else but sorting their waste carefully into recycling, composting and trash.

While COVID protocols made it difficult in the past, now all schools are bouncing back with ease. The first day of school is always a blur as teachers get their kids ready for the school day routine but it was a pleasure to see that the recycling portion in the lunchroom was easy to re-establish. WeFutureCyle consultants retrained, and did hands-on support to make sure that students are familiar again with how to sort their waste.

After nearly 1000 students sorted their lunchroom waste, only around 10 lbs of actually non-recyclable trash was generated, everything else was either compostable, recyclable, excess liquid or untouched food that we routed back into the hands of hungry children in the afternoon.