2008 Longhorn Recycle Roundup Winners...Congratulations to the below schools for their outstanding campus recycling, conservation, and beautification initiatives. Winning school received $500 to continue to improve upon their green efforts and were recognized on the field at the UT vs. Baylor Game on November 8th.

• Austin Discovery School
• Bryker Woods Elementary School
• Brentwood Elementary School
• Spicewood Elementary School
• Trinity Episcopal School

Schools with new recycling programs are recognized with the Coca-Cola Recycle Rookie Award. The 2008 Coca-Cola Recycle Rookie Award and $250 cash prize winner is Blackshear Elementary School.

The $100 Longhorn Recycle Roundup Drawing goes to NYOS Charter School.

2008 Longhorn Recycle Roundup Winner Highlights

Austin Discovery School
In the last year Austin Discover School went from 3 small vegetable gardens, a “bird feeder” garden, and basic butterfly garden to a school-wide compost system, an increase in the size of their vegetable gardens, and an expansive butterfly garden. They also doubled the size of their orchard, marketed a paper recycling program, held a Clean Creek day, began the installation of a pond, and had a festival to celebrate water. 

The butterfly garden was designed in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and all ADS students, from K-5th grade, helped to install plants and add mulch.  ADS students maintain the garden and study plant cycles, uses of plants and decomposition in the garden.  Students are also responsible for transporting food waste from collection buckets in the cafeterias to be turned into the outside compost bins. A full marketing program was drawn up to promote the school paper recycling program including placing bins in each classroom and creating and posting signs in the classrooms, bathrooms, and cafeterias to remind students to recycle and use less.  In the spring, 30 ADS families participated in a Saturday cleanup and learned that tires were the most abundant and heaviest of all the materials collected. We are now officially a Clean Creek Campus. 

Bryker Woods Elementary School
What continues to set Bryker Woods Elementary apart from other schools is their comprehensive approach to environmental stewardship. Their activities blend recycling and conservation into the school curriculum while involving teachers, students and parents to green their campus. 6th graders collect the paper from each classroom and to boost their paper recycling they asked staff and students to bring paper from home to recycle; within the first two months they doubled the amount of paper from an average of 2 tons to 4 tons per month. Ongoing paper, plastic bottle, aluminum can, cell phone and shopping bag recycling at the campus is complimented with plastic and aluminum recycling at school-wide events.

Last year the PTA raised funds to eliminate Styrofoam trays in the cafeteria and replace them with reusable trays. This year, they’re starting a campaign to use real flatware instead of the disposable plastic sporks. The school administration and PTA continue to work with the cafeteria staff as well as the district to develop best practices for this environmental conservation change.

Additional waste from the cafeteria is diverted into the schools four outdoor compost bins and classroom worm-composting bins. The worm castings are used as a natural fertilizer in the school gardens, which are certified as a Wildlife Habitat. Students and parents participate in workdays to cleanup Shoal Creek and their latest project includes rebuilding an outdoor classroom on the banks of Shoal Creek.

Brentwood Elementary School
During the 07-08 school year, over 200 pounds of cans & plastic bottles were recycled at Brentwood, 2 cubic feet of used electronics were sent to Ecophones, 1 cubic foot of batteries were recycled, about 1,300 pounds (10 pounds per day) of raw fruits & vegetables were composted, and over 10 tons of paper and cardboard were collected for Balcones Recycling. Brentwood’s compost piles produced enough compost to nourish the 3 school gardens. This school year, their recycling efforts have expanded to collect additional items.  And now, with the approval of a new dishwasher, they will be eliminating Styrofoam trays and anticipating a dramatic decrease in cafeteria waste.

Brentwood’s Earth Day Fair raised environmental awareness school-wide, drawing an immense amount of support from the school and Austin community, and receiving publicity from the Statesman and Go Green Initiative. The impact of this event is evident in the growing Environmental Clubs (an increase in enrollment by 50%), the increase in the number of teacher-gardens on their campus (in 07-08, there were 3 gardens; this year, there are 8 gardens), the expansion of their Recycling Center, and the continued support of the community and school for the Brentwood Green Team.

Spicewood Elementary School
Each year Spicewood students find new ways to recycle…while learning about the environment 4th graders at Spicewood wrote letters to their principal to initiate paper recycling three years ago. The fourth grade students now volunteer their recess time to pick up the paper from each classroom. Two years ago, while studying the same unit 4th graders questioned why the campus recycled paper but not cans. As a group, they contacted several recycling companies until they found a company who would collect the cans.

Last year as part of their “Earth Day” celebrations announcements promoted “Save fuel to get to school”, students were asked to ride their bikes, walk, or car pool to school, teachers stepped up activities that focused on recycling in the classroom, and a recycling exhibit was set up in the cafeteria. Everyday at Spicewood cans, plastic bottles, and ink cartridges are recycled along with the recent addition to recycle cell phones and laser printer cartridges.

Campus recycling finds its way outdoors too with barrels that collect rain water and a compost bin both of which nourish the campus garden.

Trinity Episcopal School
Trinity Episcopal School recycles and shows stewardship in many ways on its campus of Kindergarteners through 8th graders - educating about 400 students in the importance in conserving resources, taking care of the earth, and sharing with our neighbors.  Student projects include paper recycling, using recycled products to make 3D art, recycling boxes to make choir props for concerts, cleaning up litter, and maintaining the campus native plant, wildflower, and vegetable gardens. Meanwhile campus staff and parents promote recycling on campus by eliminating 1,500 water bottles per week from the school’s hot lunch program; composting with coffee grounds and lunch scrapings; and converting 75% of information sent to parents to paperless communication via email.

At Trinity Episcopal School teachers and students also find creative ways to recycle and learn about recycling…

• For the past two years, 2nd and 3rd graders have performed a musical with the rallying cry: “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Repair.”
• First graders spend several months studying the environment and in particular participate in a hands-on unit about soil including setting up a vermin-composting bin to recycle organic waste.
• ALL students at Trinity Episcopal participate in a drive to donate used school supplies and books during the last week of school which are sorted, packaged and then distributed locally to a facility that provides after school care to low-income families and internationally to a small rural town in Ghana.  Each year, about 400 pounds of paper goods and textbooks, thousands of crayons, pens and markers, math sets, calculators, binders, and notebooks are donated!

RECYCLE ROOKIE
Blackshear Elementary School
For years paper recycling had failed at Blackshear so they decided to do something about it. Blue recycling bins to collect paper were ordered for each of the classroom, Abitibi was contracted to collect the paper recycling, cardboard recycling bins were obtained from KAB to collect aluminum and plastic. The after-school program helped prepare the bins by painting them green and stenciling a reduce, reuse, recycle symbol on the sides. The head custodian, the principal, the attendance clerk, the parent support specialist, and the librarian worked together to create Spanish and English fliers to send home encouraging families and staff to bring their recyclables to school. Awareness-raising posters were hung throughout the school. The librarian dedicated a week’s worth of library lessons to educating students about the recycling bins and what they could and could not place in them. The counselor incorporated the concept of “Green Living” into her Red Ribbon Week drug-prevention program. The 5th grade teachers officially “sponsor” the aluminum-recycling project by taking the aluminum to the recycling center.  Recently plastic bottle recycling in the teachers’ lounge was initiated.

The recycling program has already begun to change the culture at Blackshear Elementary School. Students ask if they can take out the recycling, and 3rd graders asked their teacher if they could pick up trash in the schoolyard. In addition, campus staff continue to explore ways to expand the recycling including the start of an ink cartridge-recycling program.

The 2008 Longhorn Recycling Roundup is sponsored by Allied Waste, Austin Coca-Cola, H-E-B, Fox-7 KTBC, Longhorn Sports Network, and The University of Texas.