Anica Brown, a seventh-grade science teacher at Pound Middle School, heard about a plastic bag recycling program through her church and decided to bring it to her school.
Nearly 750 pounds of plastic bags later, the middle school is well on its way to winning a bench from Trex, a company that makes composite deck material out of recycled plastic and issued the challenge to schools.
The bench, of course, would be cool, but it’s more about what it symbolizes than its sitting potential.
“It teaches students how to be conscientious caretakers of the earth and that everything we do will reflect on them in the future and how important it is to take care of our planet,” Brown said.
The efforts at Pound are just a piece of Lincoln Public Schools’ efforts at sustainability, coordinated by Brittney Albin since she started in 2014, building on the district’s longtime recycling program.
* 1.3 million pounds of material recycled annually at LPS.
* 810,000 pounds of waste diverted through composting in 41 school cafeterias. That’s based on 4,500 pounds of organic waste daily being composted.
* 4,000 tons of wood, metal, ceiling tiles, cardboard and concrete waste from LPS construction sites that’s recycled. That’s brought in $60,000 so far that’s been funneled back into sustainability efforts.
The district’s efforts — paid for with grants and recycling revenue — have garnered several awards from the U.S. Department of Education, Keep Nebraska Beautiful and the Nebraska Recycling Council.
By the start of the 2019 school year, Albin said, she expects to have all schools on board.
Albin’s goal is to divert about half the district’s waste, a goal she’s pretty sure the district will surpass this year. The district guidelines now require that construction workers divert 75 percent of the construction waste.
More recent efforts have focused on other ways to take care of the earth, whether through school gardens or litter pickup campaigns.
“We wanted to move beyond waste, because there’s room for many different areas of sustainability that can excite the students and staff,” she said.
Nearly 750 pounds of plastic bags later, the middle school is well on its way to winning a bench from Trex, a company that makes composite deck material out of recycled plastic and issued the challenge to schools.
The bench, of course, would be cool, but it’s more about what it symbolizes than its sitting potential.
“It teaches students how to be conscientious caretakers of the earth and that everything we do will reflect on them in the future and how important it is to take care of our planet,” Brown said.
The efforts at Pound are just a piece of Lincoln Public Schools’ efforts at sustainability, coordinated by Brittney Albin since she started in 2014, building on the district’s longtime recycling program.
Consider these numbers, in addition to the plastic bags:
* 1.3 million pounds of material recycled annually at LPS.
* 810,000 pounds of waste diverted through composting in 41 school cafeterias. That’s based on 4,500 pounds of organic waste daily being composted.
* 4,000 tons of wood, metal, ceiling tiles, cardboard and concrete waste from LPS construction sites that’s recycled. That’s brought in $60,000 so far that’s been funneled back into sustainability efforts.
The district’s efforts — paid for with grants and recycling revenue — have garnered several awards from the U.S. Department of Education, Keep Nebraska Beautiful and the Nebraska Recycling Council.
One of the programs that’s grown considerably is composting — composting the waste from many of the 4.6 million lunches and 1.3 million breakfasts it serves, not counting waste from lunches brought from home.
By the start of the 2019 school year, Albin said, she expects to have all schools on board.
Albin’s goal is to divert about half the district’s waste, a goal she’s pretty sure the district will surpass this year. The district guidelines now require that construction workers divert 75 percent of the construction waste.
More recent efforts have focused on other ways to take care of the earth, whether through school gardens or litter pickup campaigns.
“We wanted to move beyond waste, because there’s room for many different areas of sustainability that can excite the students and staff,” she said.
To read the full story, visit http://journalstar.com/news/local/education/lps-expects-to-surpass-goal-of-diverting-half-its-waste/article_f0a9ac04-8f8e-568a-af72-72c849aff828.html.