White Plains littlest ones are learning how to sort recyclables

September 21, 2024 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

It is one of the highlights for me to go into a preschool class and teach 3y olds that their actions can make a difference. They are so eager to please, eager to learn and are so openly astonished that they have any power whatsoever.

Empowering kids to sort materials into the correct bin and showing them how that makes a difference is the beginning of a lifelong environmental awareness.

What I particularly like is showing them how their food scraps look like after they are composted. With great excitement they are touching and smelling the compost and all declare with sincerity that composting is good. They are off to a great beginning.

Recycling Milk Cartons at White Plains Schools

September 20, 2024 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

Milk Cartons are fully recyclable, made out of high grade paper fiber with a thin coating of PET to waterproof them, they are the perfect container for milk or juice, for that matter most non carbonated beverages.

Produced from renewable resources, fully recyclable, light weight, easy to stack and compostable if need be , so -really- one of the best ways to package, store and serve drinks in a school environment or pretty much anywhere.

Carton recycling was only added in 2016 to the list of recyclable items in Westchester County.

We Future Cycle started its signature recycling program in 2014 and we realized quickly that volume wise, cartons by far outnumbered the plastic or metal packaging coming out of schools. We pushed Westchester County to join all surrounding counties and add milk cartons and juice boxes to their line up of recyclable materials.

We are pleased to save every day bags and bags of this valuable materials from being burnt as garbage, just so we can cut down some more trees to replace that paper.

We are also grateful to the Carton Council for sponsoring us to bring more recycling to a school near you.

Untouched Foods: White Plains School District has a great solution

September 16, 2024 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

One of the most heart breaking problems we see in the schools is the amount of untouched food that gets discarded. A school with about 600 students will see about 180 lbs of food and paper waste. As WeFutureCycle is teaching students to separate their waste into Recycling, Composting and Trash, these 180 lbs are going into compost, making soil, but it also means that these 180 lbs have been cooked, and served but not eaten. 180lbs!

If moms knew just HOW MUCH of their lovingly prepared cut of fruit or veggies, the sandwich or the pasta they sent to school for their child to enjoy as lunch goes straight into compost.

WeFutureCycle is constantly working to recover untouched foods that are coming out of the lunchroom because food is not trash, just because a student did not feel like eaten an item. So, unopened milk or juice cartons, untouched yogurt or applesauce containers, commercially wrapped cheese sticks or baggies with carrots and apples are recovered, and made available for other students as seconds or snack.

George Washington Elementary school in White Plains has invested in a refrigerator and it is a pleasure to watch how students are now aware of the problem and are participating in the “Share Basket”.

This is a wonderful solution to a heartbreaking problem.

White Plains schools is reducing trash one pouch at a time

September 16, 2024 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

WeFutureCycle has been working with the White Plains schools district for many years now and it is such a pleasure to see the positive changes that food service has implemented. All schools have now syrup bottles instead of the dreaded single serve pouches. This comes with the added benefit of practicing table manners for our littlest ones. ” May I have some syrup, please” is now a common phrase which is then accompanied with a life skill lesson to judge how much or little they actually want.

Recently we were also able to introduce salad dressing from bottles rather than pouches.

Reducing trash one pouch at a time, while teaching social and life skill is a win win situation for the environment and the students.