Waste Stream Diversion at RHS

Where does it go? Any adult who visits the lunchroom at RHS will likely hear this question at least once. After two years of school wide effort, the children know their trash no longer automatically goes to the landfill. This past week I visited several classrooms on Monday and Tuesday to do a review lesson of why and how we sort our lunch waste.

Every morning the students at Redwood Heights gather outside to say together the school maxim: “We take care of our Self, We take care of Others, We take care of our School.” I asked the students when they sort their trash, which of the school rules are they following? Some said it was to help others, and some said it was to help our school. Still others said when we sort the trash we’re following all three.

We talked about what happens when we don’t sort our trash, and where the trash goes—we discussed the animals that have to leave their homes to make room for the landfill, or even get killed when their homes are destroyed. Or the animals in the ocean who suffer when plastic garbage looks to them like food. As adults we know more reasons to be concerned about filling up our landfills (the build up of methane gases contributing to global warming, issues of social justice and environmental racism as industrialized countries ship our garbage to developing countries overseas or poor communities within our country, and the huge economic costs of managing and disposing of waste), but actually the suffering of innocent animals is reason enough. The children mentioned several positive reasons to sort trash, such as that some of what would go in a landfill can be reused or made into cool stuff, and that food waste makes great compost that feeds the plants. Diverting waste from the landfill also saves our district money, so there are numerous reasons to sort our trash.

At Redwood Heights School students are learning how to reduce the amount of trash that goes to the landfill, and others are taking note. Last year, we won a special award for our trash sorting efforts from the Oakland School district, the “Green Glove Award,” which is displayed on the wall next to the front of the office. We were also recognized by Stopwaste.org as a "Bay Friendly" School Garden in part for our trash reducing program.

This week we practiced sorting trash or pictures of trash, and I was impressed by how many students remembered and understood the rules of sorting. The children are motivated to help the animals and proud of their efforts so far to divert waste from the landfills. Some students proudly displayed their lunch pails and items made from recycled materials. You can help your child at home with waste sorting by including them in your waste sorting process, or if it’s appropriate, giving them the job of taking out the compost, trash and recycling. Purchasing reusable and/or recycled products whenever possible also reinforces the 4Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot) that the students are practicing at school. You can find more ideas of what to do at www.stopwaste.org.