Tag Archives: health

For White Plains Eastview Students Recycling Is The New Normal

February 2, 2017 wefuturecycle 1 Comment

On my regular visit to schools participating in the We Future Cycle Recycling Program, I often ask the students how they are feeling about sorting in the lunchroom. The answers today made me so proud! Here is what Eastview’s 6th graders had to say.

Diego said that sorting is not hard, it helps the Earth so much and he now does it automatically without thinking and also at home.

David brought the information home and in his house there are 3 bins now and everything gets sorted correctly, and that makes it so much cleaner.

Reid echoed that now his house also recycles, something they did not do before.

Rebecca shared that they were recycling before she learned about it in school, but now they are also composting in their yard and they are much more exact about what items can all be recycled.

Silvia also brought recycling home and it is now the new normal at home as well.

Watching 600+ students sorting carefully their lunchroom waste into excess liquid, commingled recycling and food waste for composting was so inspiring. They KNEW what to do, and they did it casually, completely naturally and without any effort at all. While chatting with their friends soft plastic was separated from the left over sandwich so each could go into the correct bin, left over milk was poured into the bucket, and the carton went into recycling.

This new normal also shows throughout the building as each classroom is set up with a paper and commingled recycling bin .

Today I audited the garbage that came from night clean, so from all the classrooms, bathrooms and offices and it was incredible! A building of 600+ students generated just 16 lbs of garbage in the building, 6 lbs from lunch and breakfast and 3 lbs from the kitchen. So a total of only 25 lbs of garbage per day, down from 296 lbs per day or an overall 92% reduction! That is way wonderful. And just think about these 600+ students bringing this news home and making it the new normal there as well.

New Rochelle Trinity Students Digging In Dirt and Loving It

February 1, 2017 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Inspecting Soil Samples

What happens to the food waste that New Rochelle students are sorting out in the lunchroom to be composted? How does composting work and is it really worth the effort? Those were questions that New Rochelle Trinity 5th graders are learning the answers to.

We Future Cycle, a not-for- profit organisation specialized in large scale sustainability programs has been working with Trinity Elementary school and its 1000+ students for years now. Source separation and words like commingled and compost are second nature to these kids.

In classroom presentations, students learned what happens to food that is put into a landfill, they learned about harmful Methane as potent green house gas and large contributor to global warming and they learned about the chemical processes that take place inside a compost pile. Giggles and audible gasps were heard when they learned that each one of them is a decomposer as the banana that might go into their mouth does not come out quite like a banana again.

The best part was digging in the dirt as they got to examine up close and personal four different soil samples. Inspecting them while looking for color, texture, water retention capabilities and organic matter content gave them a deep understanding of the connection between healthy soils and its ability to grow food.

Each worm they found was greeted with cheers and great enthusiasm.

Trinity’s 5th graders have learned now that treating food waste as garbage is wasting a valuable resource. Making compost from food waste and leaves is making black gold, and it saves a lot of money.

For more information:

Why food composting can save Westchester’s taxpayer money, big time!

New Rochelle Davis 1st Graders Helping The Earth

January 27, 2017 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

” I reuse by using a plastic container for lunch and a metal bottle” writes and illustrates Amanda Koffler.

We Future Cycle recently did a refresher class in all classrooms of New Rochelle Davis Elementary School. Students learned more about how bad garbage was for the environment, and that there is no “away” on this Earth.

Ms Curry’s First Grade class was all fired up and decided to write a book on how they will make a difference and help this Earth.

I was very impressed. Jefferson Rabanales wrote a “How to” story on sorting. He titled it “How to recycle” and outlined clearly the steps.

First you eat your snack or your lunch
you find the correct bin
now you put the stuff in the correct bin

Nadia Morales very nicely color coded her picture and summarized : “I help the Earth because I recycling”

Abigayle Mills outlines that she helps the Earth by always bringing reusable water bottles.

Nalani Canales re-purposes materials to make new things out of it. “I help the Earth because I reuse a shoebox to make a mailbox”

Juliana Rubino has the right idea. “I clean up the Earth because I clean up the Earth every day”

Every single one of Ms Curry’s students pledged to help the Earth. Way to go!

Recycling at a Middle School? Not for the faint hearted but New Rochelle Isaac Young MS pulled it off flawlessly

December 20, 2016 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

Any parent of a middle schooler can attest to the level of difficulty of making their youngster do anything out of the ordinary, especially if it does not involve electronics.

New Rochelle Isaac Young MS just joined the growing group of schools to have introduced the We Future Cycle Recycling Program. This program reduces waste by sorting materials into excess liquid, recyclable material, compost and untouched food to be donated. Isaac Young MS results were particularly astounding.

From 348 lbs down to a mere 7.5 lbs, from 20 bulging and dripping bags to one single fluffy one.

Under the guidance of Assistant Principal Dan Gonzales and Head Custodian Bill Coleman, the school systematically put the program in place. The We Future Cycle Executive Director presented to all teachers, all security staff, all custodial and night clean staff and finally to all the students the detrimental effects of garbage on our environment and how easy it is to sort the waste into recyclable and compostable avenues.

This is what 7.5 lbs of soft plastic looks like.

Teachers reported how shocked they were to learn about the cost of garbage removal to the tax payer and to society at large. Students reported that they had no idea that something as easy as sorting could make such a huge difference.

All of Isaac Young 6th graders had gone through the program already in their elementary schools and fell right back into the routine. 7th and 8th graders are adjusting nicely to the “new normal”. Both lunchroom cleaners as well as the head custodian are reporting that they were skeptical in the beginning but upon seeing the amazing results are fully on board.

We Future Cycle is excited to be also part of the newly created Recycling Club to bring even more environmental awareness to the students. Plans are in place to use the lunchroom walls for student made educational materials outlining the environmental foot print and end of life cycle challenges of packaging materials they hold in their hand on a daily basis.

Recycling at a Middle School, not for the faint hearted but New Rochelle Isaac Young MS pulled it off flawlessly. Way to go!

New Rochelle Barnard even Pre-K Students Sorting Recyclables Flawlessly

December 6, 2016 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

New Rochelle Henry Barnard students are well into their second year participating in the We Future Cycle recycling program. From time to time, we go back into the classrooms to do more education around the topic and even the littlest ones are now sorting flawlessly.

They know what goes in the green bin, and what goes in the blue bin. And they are happily piping up when I was “making a sorting mistake”.

Teaching children young to care about the environment, to sort materials and foster the understanding that nothing is disposable is the key to creating a generation of kids that care.

Barnard’s students are leading the way!

New Rochelle Davis students learning how Garbage affects wildlife

November 10, 2016 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

New Rochelle Davis Elementary School students are expert lunchroom material sorters. The school is in its second year of the We Future Cycle Recycling program and has reduced its building waste by nearly 50% and its lunchroom waste by a whopping 92%.

To refresh students and to infuse new excitement into being green, We Future Cycle presenters went into all the classes today to expand on what the students know already about the detrimental consequences of garbage in the environment.

Part of the presentation was this 3 min video clip.

This powerful clip brought home to them, that there is no “away” when it comes to garbage and it lead to a healthy discussion about plastic consumption, personal commitment to make a change and the dire need for everybody to become engaged.

White Plains Church St School tackling Single Serve Snack Waste

November 10, 2016 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

White Plains Church St Elementary School students have learned all about sorting and recycling. Last year, the school implemented the We Future Cycle Recycling Program and has had fantastic results

Before implementation Church Street Elementary generated 196 lbs of waste in the lunchroom every day. But with the program in place, all liquids, compostables and recyclables were sorted out, only 3 lbs of actual trash was left over. And even 18.5 lbs of untouched food was rescued and donated. A win – win – win situation.

While this 98% reduction of waste through diversion is fabulous, these 3 lbs constitute a kitchen sized bag filled to the brim with single serve snack waste like juice pouches, chips, cookie wrappers and hundreds and hundreds of sandwich bags.

This problem is now being tackled. We Future Cycle’s experienced presenters skillfully helped the students to see the connection between food and their body and ultimately their health. They all knew that chips and cookies were junk food and not good for them, but they mentally separated “snack” from the concept of “food”.

Walking them through reading labels, understanding the marketing behind colorful pictures of fruit on a package of sweets that contains only 1% fruit juice was an eye opening experience for them.

And then walking them through how what is not good for their body is also not good for the Earth as the single serve packaging is trash, energized them into making a change. The air was buzzing with students making suggestions on how to make a difference.

Fracking North Carolina is one step closer to Fracking in New York

May 30, 2014 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

I just read the very depressing article about North Carolina fast tracking Pro-Fracking legislation.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/north-carolina-republicans-move-quickly

I am shivering to think when this topic is coming up in New York again. Astorino has made it clear that he is Pro-Fracking.

And it is not that the dangers of fracking are not known or proven over and over, because even the people that are doing it, practice the NIMBY (not in my back yard).