School District: Lake Washington
School Location: Sammamish
Began participating in the Green Schools Program: September 2011

Level One of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in May 2012

Waste reduction and recycling (level one)

• The school increased its recycling rate from 33 percent to 50 percent.
• As a result of the school’s recycling success, the garbage Dumpster is picked up once each week instead of twice per week, saving the school district an estimated $4,000 annually.
• Students take ownership of the recycling process at the school by emptying classroom recycling containers into larger bins daily. Sixth grade students empty the large recycling bins into the school’s outdoor recycling Dumpster weekly.
• Students started to recycle empty milk cartons and juice boxes at school.
• The school promoted waste-free lunches on Wednesdays to raise awareness and reduce overall lunch waste.
• To reduce the amount of Styrofoam lunch trays that are used, Styrofoam trays are only used for "messy foods" as identified by the district’s food service provider.
• Each classroom has a one-sided paper reuse box to reduce use of paper.
• The school participated in the King County elementary school assembly program and classroom workshops to train staff and students on the importance of recycling and what can and can’t be recycled.

• Sixth grade students conduct informal classroom recycling bin audits to find out how well teachers and students are recycling. When they find recyclable materials in garbage containers or items in the recycling containers that can’t be recycled, classes are reminded about what items can be recycled.
• The staff and student Green Team created the following education and outreach materials:
  • Reduce, Reuse, Recycle bulletin board 
  • Three-dimensional posters that hang above garbage and recycling containers in the lunchroom to show which items can and can’t be recycled or thrown away.
  • Videos that describe what can and can’t be recycled and promote the school’s recycling progress were shown at lunchtime.
• The music teacher and third grade classes created a music video to raise awareness about waste reduction and recycling.

Awards

• Margaret Mead Elementary received a King County Earth Hero at School Award in May 2012 for their waste reduction and recycling program.

For more information about the school’s conservation achievements and participation in the Green Schools Program, contact:

Sandy Klein, principal
sklein@lwsd.org

Ellen Drummond, teacher
edrummond@lwsd.org

Dawn Polluck, teacher
dpolluck@lwsd.org