School Enhanced Recycling and Source Separated Organics Case Study
ISD 197, Dakota County

Type of project:

Recycling and Food/Source Separated Organic

School description:

Garlough Environmental Magnet Elementary K-4, 401: staff: 58
Mendota Elementary K-4, 320: staff: 54
Moreland Elementary K-4, 328: staff: 74
Pilot Knob Elementary K-4, 293: staff: 56
Somerset Elementary K-4, 381: staff: 57
Friendly Hills Middle School 5-8, 615: staff: 76
Heritage Middle School 5-8, 688: staff: 94
Henry Sibley High School grades 9-12, 1363: staff: 136

For this project, all together there were 4,390 students and 605 staff.

Communities served: West St. Paul, Mendota Heights, and Eagan

Project purpose/goals:

The goal of this project was to improve the existing recycling program at all schools, improve the source separated organic (SSO) program at three schools, and start-up SSO at the five remaining schools. Before the project, the recycling program consisted of paper collection including corrugated cardboard and mixed containers (plastic bottles and aluminum cans) in all of the District’s schools and SSO recovery in three of the eight schools. There was no standardization of containers or signage/labels.

Materials targeted:

Paper, cardboard, bottles and cans, SSO.

Accomplishments:

The five elementary schools and two middle schools combined reduced the amount of waste going into the garbage by approximately 47%. This was accomplished by a combination of increased recycling and beginning SSO programs.

Project team:

District Sustainability Manager, school principals, custodians, green team leaders, and teachers.

Partnerships:

Rebecca Kulas with Dakota County, Tim Goodman with Tim Goodman and Associates, and Waste Management.

Process:

School walkthroughs were performed to get a sense of what the District’s existing recycling program was like. Their recycling program consisted of the collection of paper including corrugated cardboard and mixed containers (plastic bottles and aluminum cans) in all of the District’s SSO recovery in three of the eight schools. Based on the school walkthroughs and meetings, a plan was developed, which included:
- Determining the best placement of recycling and trash containers throughout the schools;
- Standardizing and color-coding all recyclable (blue), organics (green), and trash (black, gray, or brown) containers throughout the District;
- Labeling all containers with standardized County signage indicating what they are for;
- Provide new larger, blue recycling containers (23-gal. or 36-gal. square containers and/or 96-gal. Toter carts) for hallways and common areas;
- Ensuring that for every trash container there was a recycling container paired with it;
- Placing bottle-shaped recycling bins near vending machines and outside near trash bins;
- Expanding SSO collection to the remaining five schools;
- Engaging students in helping with development of an educational outreach effort to increase the awareness of the new program;
- Eliminating the separate cardboard dumpster at all schools except the high school, and placing cardboard in a mixed recycling dumpster.

The metrics for measuring the outcomes of the enhanced program included comparing monthly solid waste service costs for last year with solid waste service costs for this year. Additionally, the fullness of the back-end dumpsters was tracked for the first three months of the program to obtain estimated amounts of recyclables and organics recovered and trash disposed.

Prior to the start of school, open houses for parents and students were held at all the schools. Representatives from the District and the County were there to introduce the new program and answer any questions. Within a week of the start of school the program was in place.

During the first three months of the school year, a number of activities were undertaken to promote the new program and provide educational outreach to students, parents and the larger community. Among some of the activities undertaken were:
- Creating a recycling/composting page on the District website;
- Visiting each classroom (District Energy Manager and school principals) to talk with students and teachers about the program;
- Creating a video on composing and recycling in the lunch room;
- Holding a poster contest;
- Getting articles published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press and some of the school newsletters; and
- Implementing a Prize Patrol program for randomly rewarding teachers whose classroom recycling containers contain only recyclables and the trash containers containing only trash.

Classroom connections:

- Elementary Schools: principals and LIVEGREEN leaders went into each classroom to instruct students on proper disposal
- Middle school and high school: an information table was set up at the “back to school” events
- High school: link leaders (student leaders) were trained to help 9th graders in the cafeteria with sorting waste.

Project timeline:

The project was started in summer of 2009 for a beginning of school year 2009-2010 kick-off.

Cost/budget:

As part of the project, Dakota County had allocated $40,000 in funds for purchasing new infrastructure, providing signage/labels for those containers, and providing educational material.

Approximately $1,600 was saved by lowering solid waste disposal costs as a result of diverting recyclables. In the end, no cost savings were observed and the total cost of waste removal was the same. Recycling costs less than trash disposal, composting cost more than trash disposal, so in the end it was a push for which we were grateful.

Measurable Results:

During the first three months of the program, the elementary and middle schools recovered approximately 66,164 pounds of mixed recyclables and 591,000 pounds of SSO. It is estimated that this is a 47% increase over the previous year.

Lessons Learned:

- Starting with one school at a time, every facility has a unique set of challenges so start small to keep from getting discouraged.
- Use a variety of communication tools, let everyone know what you are doing, email staff, parents, make announcements, have assemblies, classroom instruction, poster, labels, etc. It has been said that it takes an average of 10 times for an ad to make an impact on a consumer; I think it's the same with making this kind of change in a school.

For further information, contact Rebecca Kulas, Environmental Specialist at the Dakota County Environmental Management Department.

 

School Enhanced Recycling and Source Separated Organics Case Study
ISD 192, Dakota County

Type of project:

Recycling and Food/Source Separated Organic

District description:

Grade Levels K-12
Number/Types of School Buildings: 5 Elementary Schools, 2 Middle Schools, 1 High School
Student Enrollment: 4,753 (2009/2010 School year) 6,412 (2010/2011 school year)
Number of Staff: 657 (2009/2010 school year) 892 (2010/2011 school year)
Unique Characteristics:
- New high school opened its doors in fall of 2009.
- Former high school building was remodeled and became a middle school (Boeckman) in same year.
- 9th grade was moved from the middle schools to the high school.
- District switched to single-stream recycling (all commodities collected together) in April 2009.
- Enhanced recycling program rolled out in high school and one middle school in the 2009/2010 school year.
- Programs at other schools rolled out in 2010/2011 school year.

Project purpose/goals:

The goal of this project was to enhance the existing District recycling program through improving efficiencies and diverting more materials away from disposal through increased recycling efforts.

Materials targeted:

Paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, glass bottles, and cans - 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 school years.
Source separated organics - 2010/2011 school year (2nd half) and 2011/2012 school year (1st half).

Accomplishments:

Combined, the five elementary schools, two middle schools, and high school reduced the amount of waste going into the garbage by approximately 26%. This was accomplished by increasing recycling and beginning a source seperated organics program.

Primary Project Partners:

Dakota County and ISD 192.

Project team/Roles:

Dakota County - Procured new recycling containers, signage, container labels, and educational materials.
Tim Goodman & Associates (Retained by Dakota County) - Assisted in developing a plan for improving the recycling program.
Schools for Energy Efficiency (SEE) - SEE representative coordinated collection of data and served as a liaison with District Staff (2010/2011 only).
Principals - Gave support to the project through meetings and other recycling program activities.
Youth Enrichment Coordinator - Supervised students/student groups involved in project (2009/2010 only).
Students/Student Groups - A number of students/student groups participated in container patrol, peer education, and school waste sorts. High school groups included the Youth Development Group, Environmental Club, and Special Education Students.
Custodians - Carried out daily operations associated with the roll-out of the new program.
Dick's Sanitation, Inc. - Provided input and assistance with regard to solid waste and recycling collection program adjustments.
City of Farmington - Provided input and assistance with regard to solid waste collection program adjustments.

Process:

School walkthroughs at all schools were performed. Based on the walkthroughs and several strategy meetings, a plan was developed which included:
- Determining the best placement of recycling and trash containers throughout the schools;
- Standardizing and color-coding recyclable (blue) and trash (black, gray, or brown) containers throughout the two schools. Containers for source-separated organics are yellow;
- Labeling all containers with standardized signage;
- Providing new larger, blue recycling containers (23-gal. square containers or 44-gal. Brute containers) for hallways and common areas;
- Placing bottle-shaped recycling bins near vending machines and outside near trash bins;
- Ensuring that for every trash container there was a recycling container paired with it;
- Increasing the recycling stations in the cafeterias and near public access areas;
- Engaging students in helping with development of an educational outreach effort to increase the awareness of the new program;
- Asking custodial staff monitor the frequency of collection and how full backend carts and dumpsters are when serviced (2010/2011 school year);and
- Piloting and expanding source separated organics programs at the elementary schools and one middle school (Beginning in December 2010).

Promotional/Educational Outreach Activities:

2009/2010 School Year: During the 2009/2010 school year, a number of activities were undertaken at the high school to promote the new recycling program and provide educational outreach to students, parents and the larger community. Among some of the activities were:
- Involving high school students from the Youth Development Group and Environmental Club in outreach activities and special education students in container patrol;
- Having the principal announce a different recycling "fun fact" each morning on the PA system;
- Preparing annoucements to be run on the high school's internal communications network;
- Updating the existing recycling video and making plans to create a new one once the cafeteria recycling program is up and running;
- Publishing articles in the St. Paul Pioneer Press (recycling program and waste sort) as well as the Farmington Independent newspaper;
- Holding a recycling poster contest;
- Conducting a waste and recycling sort at the high school (November 2009); and
- Holding a competition between the four lunch periods with the one doing the best job at recycling being rewarded with piped in music during their lunch period.

2010/2011 School Year: During the 2010/2011 school year, similar promotional and educational outreach activities were undertaken at the elementary schools, middle schools, and to a lesser extent at the high school. Activities during this year included:
- Conducting fall (October) and spring (April) waste and recycling sorts at an elementary school and a middle school;
- Publishing articles in the St. Paul Pioneer Press (recycling program and waste sort) as well as the Farmington Independent newspaper;
- Communicating recycling facts and information through SEE Moments;
- Making recycling and organics for composting posters and artwork;
- Weekly SEE Moments focused on recycling/organics 90% of the time;
- Quarterly newsletter and monthly communication with updates and tips on how to better recycle;
- SEE posters, stickers and tip sheets focused on energy savings and recycling (conservation);
- Board meeting updates on the program; and
- Weeklong events in October and January that focus on energy and resource conservation.

Project timeline:

This project was implemented at the high school and Boeckman middle school during the 2009/2010 school year. During the 2010/2011 school year the project was rolled out at all five elementary schools and Dodge middle school.

Cost/budget:

Dakota County provided approximately $35,000 for containers, signage and educational materials to Boeckman Middle School and Farmington High School in the 2009/2010 school year and to the other six district schools in the 2010/2011 school year. The above costs do not reflect the time and effort put in by both county staff and the consultant.

Measurable Results:

Three different methods were used to measure outcomes – (1) review of invoices; (2) collection frequency and dumpster/cart capacity used at time of servicing; and (3) waste and recycling sorts. By adjusting the size of dumpster/cart and collection frequency – there may be opportunities for reducing the cost of servicing.

Since the new high school opened in fall of 2009 and a grade shifted, typical parameters to measure baseline costs and recycling volumes could not be used at the high school. As a result, the 2009/2010 school year for this school was designated to be the baseline for future assessments. Overall results of the enhanced recycling program at the other schools included the following:
- District-wide, the service cost comparison between the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 school years (fall and winter quarters only) did not show a reduction in the cost of service. However, it was only during the late winter and early spring quarters that adjustments were made to the collection frequency for solid waste services. Based on calculations performed by the City of Farmington, he District should see a cost reduction of nearly $13,370 annually by going from a 5 day/week trash collection schedule down to a 3 day/per week schedule. This calculation does not include North Trail Elementary School or the Farmington High School which are serviced by Dick's Sanitation. These schools should also see reduced costs by adjusting the servicing frequency.
- Based on tracking data from five of the eight schools (Figure 1), from January through April:
- Cardboard/paper recycling increased from 14.1% to 19.2%.
- Mixed containers (primarily cans and plastic bottles) increased from 12.2% to 21.6%.
- Organics recovery increased from zero to 11.2%.
- Trash decreased from 73.7% to 48.0%.
- Comparing the combined results of the fall and summer waste and recycling sorts conducted at Farmington Elementary School and Dodge Middle School:
- Recycling increased approximately 13% and trash was reduced by approximately 61%.
- The cleanliness of the recyclables in the recycling bins remained high, with less than a 4% contamination rate in the bins during all waste sorts.

Lessons Learned:

- Having custodial staff track the fullness of backend containers as a way to calculate how much material is diverted for recycling or to determine if a change in collection frequency is warranted is difficult to coordinate and is open for wide variation in visual estimations. Working with the contracted hauler to obtain this information is likely to give more accurate estimations of weight and a more reliable indicator of servicing frequency.
- Having District/school support from the Director of Buildings and Grounds (or equivalent), the Director of Finance, school principals and lead custodial staff is crucial for implementation and management of an enhanced recycling program.
- If a source separated organics program is added, having support from the Nutrition Director or food service vendor is also crucial.
- Establish a methodology for measuring results – costs, quantity of materials recovered, quality of materials recovered. Some schools set up a separate code within the Uniform Financial Accounting and Reporting Standards (UFARS) system to track all costs associated with solid waste/recycling services separate from other operational costs.
- Directly involve students in the program wherever possible so as to encourage "ownership" of the program. With ownership comes responsibility and peer pressure to engage others.

For further information, contact Rebecca Kulas, Environmental Specialist at the Dakota County Environmental Management Department.