Juice Pouch Upcycling
Each day at lunch, students with juice pouches as a drink place the empty pouches in a bin. Once the bin is full, they are boxed and sent to Terracycle for upcycling. From August 2012 through December 2015, 49,019 juice pouches were saved by DES students. These are juice pouches that would otherwise have gone into the landfill. The juice pouch upcycling program at DES continues to be a strong daily solid waste reduction program which is in practice during all 6 lunch periods everyday.
Glue Stick and Writing Instrument Recycling
The Functional Skills classroom leads the glue stick and writing instrument collection program at DES. On a daily basis, a student collects and sorts the used materials. Glue sticks are boxed and taken to the landfill for recycling. Writing instruments are boxed and sent to Terracycle for upcycling. From August 2012 - December 2014, glue sticks were boxed and mailed to Terracycle for upcycling. Starting in January 2015, glue sticks were taken to the landfill for recycling with the hard plastics. Since January 2015, 189lbs. of glue sticks were kept out of the landfill. From August 2012 to June 2015 7,950 writing instruments were sent to Terracycle for upcycling. Collections continue for the 2015-2016 school year.
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Produce Cup Recycling
Over 46 school days in the Spring of 2015, DES students led a campaign to save produce cups from entering a landfill. During breakfast and lunch, students placed their produce cups in a bin. A Special Ed classroom then rinsed and counted the cups daily. They were counted in groups of ten, which supplemented the math lesson. In this short period of time 2,650 cups were saved and recycled!
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Waste Free Lunch
During Earth Week 2015, DES kicked off Waste-Free Wednesdays. Students were encourage to pack a waste free lunch. Students that packed a lunch that contained no items that went into the trash can received a patio pass to eat lunch outside. Students that composted food by placing uneaten compostable materials in a bucket also received a patio pass. Waste-Free Wednesdays continued through the end of the school year and DES plans to start Waste-Free Wednesdays again during Earth Week 2016.