GETTING RESULTS: New Rochelle School District Eliminates Carcinogenic Styrofoam From The Menu

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downloadUnder the leadership of Interim Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Korostoff and now  to be continued by New Rochelle’s new Superintendent Dr. Brian Osborne, New Rochelle School District is finally eliminating  disposable food trays made from Styrofoam from all of its cafeterias.

Expanded PolyStyrene, also known as “Styrofoam”  contains Styrene and that chemical has been linked to cancer and has been classified in 2011 as “reasonably anticipated human carcinogen” by the US Department of Health.

http://ecowatch.com/2014/07/29/styrene-officially-linked-to-cancer/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=06e8c5f2aa-Top_News_7_30_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-06e8c5f2aa-85840709

This is a wonderful development and a major win of the health and well being of our children and the environment over short sighted consideration of the pocket book.

Styrofoam trays remain the cheapest options for school districts to feed their children on, but cheapest is clearly not in the best interest of the children. Actually, it is unconscionable of School Districts to feed children on this material.

Styrofoam trays are only the cheapest because none of the upstream nor downstream costs of this material is considered. The material uses toxic ingredients, has been linked to leaching these materials into the food and drink it comes in contact with, and creates massive amount of garbage that is either landfilled and NEVER goes away, or it is, in the case of Westchester County, incinerated to then release its Styrene into the air (and guess who is breathing that air?).

When it comes to the health and weTraysfrom2schoolsll-being of our children and ultimately of our community…. CHEAP is not the right solution.

New Rochelle School District is also implementing the School Lunch Recycling Program in all of its elementary and middle schools and is paving the way for other large school districts to follow. If a district with 11,000 students can put the health of its students first, so can others. Ultimately, by taking Styrofoam out of the system, and teaching the children to source separate in the buildings and the lunchroom, thus diverting 90% of the materials from trash to recycling, New Rochelle is set to save hundreds of thousands of dollars so far spent on Waste Management.

A Win-Win and WIN situation for the children, environment and ultimately the pocket book. All it takes, is a change of attitude.

 

 

GETTING RESULTS: New Rochelle School District boots Business Manager John Quinn

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NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The City School District of New Rochelle has fired John Quinn as Assistant Superintendent for Business and Administration in the wake of reports of incompetence and corruption by Talk of the Sound and WeFutureCycle.

Related: http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/why-new-rochelle-school-district-business-manager-john-quinn-must-go

The decision, rumored since June, became public today when the District ran an advertisement to replace Quinn in the New York Times (above).

The removal of Quinn is the first step in a process begun under Interim Superintendent Jeffrey Korostoff which is continuing under Dr. Brian G. Osborne to identify and root out corruption, with a focus on areas that were responsible to Quinn which include Buildings & Grounds, Security, IT, Business Office and the Aramark contract.

http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/getting-results-new-rochelle-schools-boot-district-business-manager-john-quinn

Eastchester Elementary School Is Awarded Green Ribbon Award for Recycling in Washington

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAEastchester’s Ann Hutchinson Elementary School has just been awarded the Green Ribbon Award.

This award acknowledges the school’s achievements in taking a comprehensive approach to green schools. The areas encompassed by the award include reduced environmental impact and costs, improved health and wellness, and effective environmental and sustainability education. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated that The Anne Hutchinson School is a model of excellence and achievement in these Pillars for all other schools to follow.

Ann Hutch was  commended for the  school’s commitment to environmental stewardship, health, and sustainability and for inspiring our entire school community to aim high.

Dave O’Neil , the 5th grade teacher and driving force behind this wonderful program has been invited to celebrate Ann Hutch’s accomplishments during a nOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAational recognition event on July 22nd, 2014 in Washington D.C.

This school is following the School lunch Recycling Program  and thanks to Dave O’Neil has been showing off its remarkable success  to other schools in Westchester. This school truly buzzes with green energy. We had several organized tours and many districts are inspired to also implement the program. Make no mistake, the students are fully in-charge of the program and the tour. Be prepared to have 4th or 5th grade students tell you all about saving the world, how and what to recycle, how and what to compost and what compost is all good for. If weather permits, one even gets to view the butterfly garden, adjacent to some of the compost bins.

The Ann Hutch Website has the following write up about the Award

 

“I would like to acknowledge and thank Dave O’Neil, fifth grade teacher for spearheading our initiative to recycle and compost, Vidya Bhat, reading specialist for co-writing the Green Ribbon Award Application, and John Condon for ensuring that our facility follows all the guidelines for energy efficiency.  Most of all, I am grateful to the students and staff of the Anne Hutchinson school for working together to produce a sustainable and healthy school environment, ensuring the environmental literacy of all our graduates….it truly “takes a village”. “

Hastings-on-Hudson Schools to Implement School Lunch Recycling Program

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Recycle Garbage to GardenHastings-on-Hudson is implementing the School Lunch Recycling Program.

We Future Cycle is going to do all the preparation and set up during the summer and by September Hastings students will come back to school to fully  streamed buildings.

Each lunchroom will have a Recycling station and students will learn to separate their waste into “Commingled” “Compostable” and ” Terracycle” categories. From the current 17 bags of loose mixed garbage, Hastings will be down to less then 1/4 bag coming out of the lunchroom, all the rest will fit into the above categories. 65% of what comes out of the lunchroom is compostable.

Waste Management costs are projected to be cut in half by this measure and the school district will see a drastic decrease in use of plastic bags, a considerable expense often overlooked. Mayor Swiderski of Hastings-on-Hudson is very pleased to have this environmentally sound shift in the schools coincide with the  upcoming Plastic bag and PolyStyrene ban in October of 2014.

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)