On March 22, the Center for Green Schools hosted a webinar, “Re-imagine, Re-design and Re-cycle: School Waste Collection Systems That Work,” with panelists from Lincoln Public Schools in Nebraska, STRATEGY Zero Waste Solutions and Missoula County Public Schools in Montana, and Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin.

Each panelist spoke about the waste management systems their schools have in place—innovative bin designs, lessons learned along the way and challenges they face moving forward on the journey to zero waste. Here are some tips from the panelists:

1. Start with elementary schools. Before jumping in and getting started in all schools and at all grade levels, prioritize piloting your program in your elementary school cafeterias. Teaching students and creating a culture of waste sorting is much easier while they are young, and elementary school cafeterias tend to have a lot more built-in structure. This structure can be helpful as you teach students the ins and out of your new waste system. As these students move up to middle and high school, add the program to those schools.

2. Prioritize staff buy-in and leadership support. To get a brand new waste program off the ground or make a change to your current structure, it is essential to have leadership support, specifically from your school principal. Your principal should play the leadership role, and your other stakeholders serve as the support to make the program happen.

For staff buy-in, it is also crucial that your custodial and food service staff are invested and feel supported with any new changes. Adding additional waste stations for carton recycling, for example, means having buckets to rinse and mesh bags to be cleaned. This process can’t happen without invested staff.

3. Continuous education. Use a multipronged approach and educate all stakeholders. Think sorting activities for students in class, presentations during the first week of school for principals, zero waste coaches in the sort lines and student participation in signage creation.

4. Create the right partnerships. This includes in-district and community partnerships. In-district partnerships include using school programs and classes to help support your zero waste initiative. Missoula County Public Schools highlighted its collaboration with a CAD class to design their cart system, and Lincoln Public schools spoke about students at an industrial/technical school that created the signage for waste stations.

Community partnerships range from nonprofits that assist with programming and grant funding to facilities that will haul and handle your waste. If you are starting a new program at your school, make sure you are constantly communicating with partners and facilities to ensure that what you are providing, and its quantities, work for your partner.

5. Get creative. Panelists shared various ways they have gotten creative during their processes. Madison Metropolitan School District shared the hand-cut waste lids it created to help change student behavior and stacking containers to reduce waste by volume. Lincoln Public Schools spoke about its issue with too much residual milk being sent in cartons to the hauler. With help from the Carton Council, the solution the district implemented was capturing cartons in mesh bags meant for gym equipment. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box or look to others for creative solutions.

Thank you to our panelists for sharing their expertise:

Brittney Albin, sustainability coordinator, Lincoln Public Schools
Jeremy Drake, principal, STRATEGY Zero Waste Solutions
Chris Jimieson, parent recycling advocate, Madison Metropolitan School District

We thank our sponsor, the Carton Council.

Listen to the webcast to learn more

School waste collection systems that work