All posts by wefuturecycle

New Rochelle School Buildings and Grounds Employees Only Recycle On Overtime, Costing Taxpayer $800-1200 per week

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money_fallingThese are my remarks to the Board of Education on June 6th 2014.

Dear Board,

I am very happy to report that the control measures that Dr Korostoff put in place seem to be working beautifully.

Until I reported to Dr Korostoff about the Overtime, we had every Saturday 2 sometimes even 3 guys putting in 8 hrs overtime to pick up paper recycling from all the schools.

For example, 3 guys doing on Sunday Feb 23rd 7 hours of DOUBLE TIME overtime to do recycling. Interesting about this is, that this is the Sunday after a week and 2 days of vacation, so I am not sure how all this recycling was generated with no kids in the buildings.

Essentially Mr Gallagher and Mr Quinn allowed that paper recycling, instead of saving us money in tipping fee, was costing the school district between $800.00 and $1200.00 in overtime pay PER WEEK, plus the fuel and of course the unfettered access to the truck.

And that unfettered access to the truck has brought us to these mysterious amounts of garbage being brought to the transfer station preferably on Monday mornings. Amounts that defy all reasonable explanation as to having double as much garbage in a spring month with a week vacation compared to a winter month with no vacation. School garbage should be only varying very slightly, relative to how many days of school there were.

I just received the 2014 BOE garbage amounts from Westchester Ct, these are the amounts disposed off at the transfer station in January through April 2014.

February, before Dr Korostoff put a stop to overtime was as much as November despite of only 14 days of school, March was 1.5 times as much as February, but I am happy to report that April tonnage compared to last year was down 30%.

I am fully attributing that to the Memo sent on April 14th to all employees essentially stopping all Overtime and by extension putting clear restrictions on the trucks. As well as putting all employees on notice that there is a new cat in town.

I am sitting on the edge of my seat awaiting the report for May, which would be a full month with restriction, plus a full month with two schools fully source separating their lunchroom waste.

This shows clearly that when controls are in place, things can change.

New Rochelle schools need a Time and Attendance System as well as a Vehicle and Supply supervision system.

 

Hard Cash through Recycling for New Rochelle Elementary School

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recycling binsNew Rochelle’s Webster Elementary School has partnered up with Terracycle and the students are sorting out and recycling things like Chip bags, empty glue sticks, juice pouches, empty markers, broken electronics. broken pens, broken crayons.

Things they had — until recently — thrown into the garbage without a thought. Now they know, practically anything can be recycled if it is just sorted out.

In January of 2014, Melissa Passerelli, Principal,  and Greg Middleton, Assistant Principal asked Anna Giordano to implement a Terracycle Partner Program. The 5th graders were the Ambassadors and after going through two training sessions, they were the ones teaching the lower grades about the advantages of recycling. Students learned to bring the materials to a center hallway station and a parent volunteered to mail out the content when it was full.

Check out Terracycle.com, a fabulous company that “upcycles” materials into new and totally hip products. When you go to their website, check out their products. There is no cost involved for schools, mailing labels are free and schools will get REAL cash for their recycling.

Webster is going to buy Composting Equipment from the money they have earned through Terracycle, taking it one step further in their quest to be a waste free school. The students at Webster are learning every day that ” Waste Free starts with Me”

Mothering Mother Reinvents Produce Bags, An Extension To On-Going Plastic Bag Ban Efforts

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Over 50,000 communities world wide have woken up to the fact that single use plastic bags are BAD!

Bad for the environment, bad for the municipalities, bad for the tax payers.

They never biodegrade, they clog up sewer systems, they hang decoratively from trees, they get into our food chain, they kill animals,  and there are thousands more reasons why they are bad.

However most single use plastic ban legislation does not cover the plastic produce bags that are commonly used to package produce.

Unfortunately these plastic produce bags are often mistaken for candy by the consumer. I have seen shoppers pulling on that roll with such vigor, taking 10-20 bags at a time, to then package up in each bag one bundle of already plastic wrapped bananas, and one plastic wrapped ice berg lettuce head. And most don’t use all bags they pre-pulled, and leave them laying in their cart for the wind to carry off. No thought.

Fortunately, there is a WAY better solution.0603_1900-209x300

Mothering Mother, a company founded by Pelham Resident Sydney McInnes, has tackled just Combined-230x230that problem.  Their cotton reusable bags help to make the commitment to health with reusable produce bags, bulk bags and totes. Shopping with cotton gives a gentle, ongoing reminder to eat well, for your health and the health of the planet. Bag single use plastic habits once and for all!  

Check out their website at MotheringMother.com

 

 

 

 

 

New Rochelle Students Proud of their Earth Day Project

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This is from a few years ago. Every day I walked by this part of the woods and it bothered me to no end to see all this garbage. So, I donned some gloves on my little trash troopers, and off we went to save the world. The kids were so proud afterwards and the newspaper even picked up the story.

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(PS: we emptied the bags into the recycling can afterwards, the DPW crew gave me a LOOK when they emptied all these beer and wine bottles from my recycling can)

 

The Recycle Right Program Helps Take the Confusion Out of Recycling

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Recycling rules evolve all the time.  Municipalities change which plastic and paper materials they accept, and some have moved from source separating to single-stream recycling.  While most people have good intentions, there is a lot of confusion about what materials are recyclable and which are not, as well as the appropriate method to discard each type of recyclable.

The Recycle Right program helps clear up this confusion. Simply having clear labels on recycling bins can help increase recycling by 50%.  Watch the video here:  http://www.takepart.com/video/2014/06/02/awesome-campaign-takes-confusion-out-recycling?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2014-06-03

Hastings-on-Hudson Board of Trustees Unanimously Approves Plastic Bag and Polystyrene Ban

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Hastings-on-Hudson joined other municipalities in Westchester County and around the country to band single-use plastic bags and polystyrene.  As well, starting on June 18, the Hastings Department of Public Works will no longer pick up grass cuttings, and suggests that residents process the cuttings using “grassrecycling” or composting.

Click here to view a pamphlet by Westchester County on what to do with Grass Cuttings:

Congratulations to the Hastings community on these smart decisions to make their environment healthier!

GETTING RESULTS: New Rochelle BOE Provides Recycling Cans at Board meeting

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Having an Exit Plan is vital to any organization, and at last nights BOE meeting, after agitating the issue for a long time, FINALLY an exit plan for the offered plastic bottles was offered. Prominently featured, right next to the table, right next to the small garbage can was a blue, large recycling bin.

And ….oh wonder, oh wonder…. when the logistics are offered and visible, the bin was used and there was not a single plastic bottle in the garbage.

I credit Dr Korostoff’s policy of open door and giving me the support in my work. I also credit the custodian Derrick Burford for embracing the concept. He has shown me how he collects bottles out of the trash throughout the BOE Central Offices and places them in one central recycling can. He was very receptive to my explanation that plastic cups also belong into the category, not just bottles, and he immediately began also placing other rigid plastics into recycling.

As Neil Armstrong so famously said: ” That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. I think the same can apply here.

Way to go.

NYC District 3 Green Schools: How 6 People Changed the Way Mighty NYC Looks at Trash

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People often wonder what they, as individuals, can really do to help the environment and to create change. Most give up soon after formulating the thought, because they think, there is nothing they can do. But they are so WRONG.

We were treated yesterday at the Greenburgh Nature Center  to a fabulous presentation about how 6 caring individuals from NYC schools made a HUGE difference. They started a composting pilot in 2012 in 8 NYC public schools – a pilot that wound up being adopted by the City in September 2012 and expanded to – currently – over 450 schools, with plans to eventually expand to all 1,800 NYC public schools.

And that -of course- is sending a shock wave through the country. Suddenly other school districts are waking up to the fact that the waste they create in the schools, their usage of EPS trays, because they are “cheap” is not longer acceptable. If the largest school district can make changes, so can……..no….must they.

Emily Fano of D3 Green Schools
Emily Fano of D3 Green Schools

These parents started in 2009  by meeting monthly with a “green support group” of sorts called the District 3 Green Schools Group.  (Check them out at greenschoolsny.com)  At the meetings they shared strategies for starting classroom and cafeteria recycling programs, energy conservation programs, fundraising by selling  waste-free lunch products, and school gardens and rooftop greenhouses.  Several of the D3 schools had PTA funded compostable trays to replace the DOE-issued Styrofoam trays because of concerns the trays leached toxic chemicals into the food and because of the disposal nightmare they cause.  This was what started their focus on trying to figure out how to compost the trays, which later developed into the tray and food waste pilot of 2012.

The school lunch recycling program, started parallel in New Rochelle in 2010 is also gaining traction fast in Westchester, however to take it to the level that the NYC D3 parents have managed, it will take high level administrative support.

Right now the program is in 7 school districts with a total of 22 schools, To make this program work, many moving parts have to be adjusted. But it all starts with a single engaged person!

So, every one of us can make a difference. Who knows what river YOU will be creating.

Thank you Emily Fano, Lisa Maller and Jennifer Prescott for sharing your story with us.