Bring recycling to your school by following this all inclusive guide for implementing a school recycling program from the Virginia Recycling Association.
Download the Green Classroom Pledge for your classroom.
Get your students excited to recycle by sharing these “Did You Know” facts from the guide:
GOOD TO KNOW
- Each American generates 4.5 pounds of trash each day.
- Enough paper is collected for recycling each year to make a train of boxcars 7,600 miles long – this would be equivalent to traveling from Virginia to Washington state, back to Virginia, and over halfway back to Washington state again.
- About 3,500 20 oz. PET soft drink containers could carpet the average living room (15’x 17’).
- Each year, recycling steel saves the same amount of energy needed to electrically power about one-fifth of the households in the United States (or about 18 million homes) for one year.
- Because recycled glass melts at lower temperatures, furnaces aren’t required to operate at the higher levels needed to melt raw materials which lead to decreased energy consumption and increased energy savings.
- More than 70% of all corrugated boxes are collected for recycling.
- Over 120,000 aluminum cans are recycled every minute in the United States.
- When you recycle your used paper, paper mills will use it to make new newspaper, notebook paper, paper grocery bags, corrugated boxes, envelopes, magazines, and cartons. Recycled paper is also used to make things you may not have thought of, such as animal bedding, compost, kitty litter, and insulation.
- Recycling a ton of plastic saves the energy equivalent of 1,000 to 2,000 gallons of gasoline.
GOOD TO DO
Follow these steps from A Guide for Implementing a School Recycling Program
- Step 1: Do Your Homework
- Assemble a Team
- Analyze the Trash
- Identify Markets
- Establish a Goal
- Get Approval
- Step 2: Organize the Recycling Collection and Storage System
- Map School
- Logistics
- Containers
- Transportation
- Step 3: Education and Promotion
- Step 4: Begin Recycling!
- Step 5: Evaluate, Expand, and Celebrate the Recycling Program
