About Us
GrowNYC's Recycling Champions Program (RCP) develops best practices for recycling in NYC schools in partnership with the NYC DOE Office of Sustainability and NYC Department of Sanitation. Check out the RCP Toolkit to find resources that can help recycling take off at your school!

Reflecting on a Great School Year with Dr. Sharon Jaye
Dr. Sharon Jaye is the Director of Sustainability at the NYC DOE
 

As the school year comes to a close, Dr. Jaye shared a few of the many ways NYC schools have become more sustainable during the past year. Thanks in part the expansion of Organics Collection to 363 schools, the DOE's waste diversion rate increased by 5% to 20% diversion!  Schools also added 100 more sustainability coordinators, created over 55 more school gardens, and four schools earned the NWF Eco-Schools Green Flag Award.  Looking ahead, Dr. Jaye plans to increase accessibility to the annual sustainability coordinator trainings by offering new and different formats for key staff who work with green teams.  She is also recruiting new local and national partners to strengthen current sustainability efforts.

The Big Lift!

Ever wonder how much your recycling program is improving? This spring, eleven Recycling Champions schools participated in The Big Lift, a contest that challenges participating schools to weigh all of their waste from classrooms, offices, and cafeterias, once a week for four weeks.  

 

I.S. 34 Staten Island finished in first place with an average diversion rate of 79%!  They averaged a 14% diversion rate for cartons, plastic, metal, a 24% diversion rate for paper, and a 41% diversion rate of organic material through Organics Collection. Another top finisher was Manhattan Hunter Science H.S. which achieved a combined diversion rate (paper plus cartons, plastic and metal) of 66%. Most improved schools include M.S. 226, Queens (paper), Dewitt Clinton H.S., Bronx (cartons, plastics and metal), and College Academy, Manhattan (organics).

Fun Videos To Teach Recycling
Creating games and films can shape interdisciplinary activities of Green Teams, making recycling fun. 

 

When Melissa Buisson, a science teacher at P.S. 22 in Staten Island, created the school's first Green Team, she required students to submit research, poems, or songs about recycling in order to participate.  Students then worked with  Recycling Champions on creating and filming impromptu and silly educational skits, which allowed them to gain confidence as "educator actors."  Bill White, owner of Neo-Studios, captured these skits one morning.  Along with a cafeteria monitoring program, these videos will be used to educate staff and students about recycling.

 

The Green Team at the Harlem Renaissance High School filmed a mock news team reporting the "shocking news" of on-site recycling contamination.  P.S. 30 in Staten Island created a game and recycling classroom presentation, which caught the attention of a local TV station making a public service announcement.  Assistant Principal, Joseph Napolitano, highly recommends to any school to create a Green Team, as "student academic performance and behavior improved in some cases dramatically." 

Students at Bronx International High School learn about recycling in a community service class.
Bronx High Schoolers Use Inquiry Methods to Learn About Recycling 

Sustainability Coordinator and English teacher Ray Pultinas at De Witt Clinton High School in the Bronx works with a dynamic Environmental Affairs Club, hosting "Clinton Garden" events, field trips, a speaker series, and a paper recycling initiative, all part of a holistic approach to sustainability. But stewardship is not limited to the club.  English class writing assignments include environmental ethics questions related to waste. Ntina Diaz, Sustainability Coordinator at Bronx International High School, created a community service class devoted to recycling.  Working with the Recycling Champions, students explored topics such policy and technology solutions related to waste, while creating materials for a presentation to their peers. 

 

Positive Change in South Ozone Park School

Principal Rushell White shares some of the changes she has seen at her school, M.S.226 Queens since working with Recycling Champions.

 

After setting recycling goals with school leaders, students utilized skills gained in the Broadcast Journalism course to spread the word about recycling through public service announcements.  Their messaging helped to transform the look of recycling and improve participation throughout the school.  Principal White says "students are gaining lifelong skills of pride, communication, initiative, drive, leadership and self and community awareness.  These are invaluable skills that have transformed our school environment in a very short time since its implementation."  She adds "if students learn how they can contribute to the long-term good of the environment, then they will understand the value of their efforts today.  A successful recycling program such as this will awaken students to the need to take action now, for a better tomorrow."

Lynn Tiede (center) with some of her 10th grade Global History Students
Featured Recycling Champion: Lynn Tiede

The Sustainability Coordinator at Columbia Secondary School in Harlem, Ms. Tiede connects students to the importance of their actions. 


Ms. Tiede uses her Global History, Government, and Economics courses, aligned with state curriculum requirements, to teach sustainability. Through a lens of history, civics, or economics her students learn the origins of many environmental issues, and consider the current state of waste management, climate change, and resource depletion. Students also come to understand their role as agents of change. Global History students are required to serve at least once as recycling monitors in the lunchroom and write about how it felt to take a hands on approach to solving a global issue. Several of Ms. Tiede's students created civic action projects to encourage composting at home, and one designed training materials for middle school students to help them understand the importance of recycling. 

Viva Juanita! 

Juanita Mathias, a school aide at Brooklyn Technical High School, is hands-on and proactive in creating a cafeteria culture that demands respect and responsibility for cleanliness from students.

 

In a school of 5,500 students, Juanita oversees one-fifth of the students who eat in the cafeteria. With this many teenagers, things could get messy, but not in her section. To understand the importance of a proactive school aide in establishing a successful cafeteria recycling program, the Recycling Champions staff compared Juanita's lunch section to the other areas of cafeteria. On average, twice the number of students in Juanita's section got up to sort their recyclables and waste in comparison to the sections of the cafeteria supervised by the other school aides. Through direct communication and an occasional joke, Juanita's section continually proves to be the cleanest throughout the five lunch periods. Juanita is so respected and notorious around school that students made a pin in her honor, raising funds for the upcoming senior class. Viva Juanita!

Q & A with Carmine Ferrera
Carmine is the Deputy Director of Facilities for schools in northern Manhattan.  Many of his school joined Organics Collection in January. 

How can a custodian engineer benefit from working with students, faculty and staff to implement a successful recycling program?  It definitely opens a dialogue between the custodians and the students/staff; a savvy custodian will use this to his/her advantage to gain feedback and assistance with identifying building issues. Additionally the program will result in a cleaner cafeteria and school grounds.

 

What are some of the stumbling blocks you've seen that can get in the way of a successful recycling program? I would say awareness/training - getting the word out and training students and school staff. Without administrative support the students will never buy into the program.

 

What advice would you give to custodian engineers who schools are joining Organics CollectionDon't be afraid of change. This is a great initiative; one that could positively change NYC infrastructure forever.

 

KIPPin' It Real  

KIPP Elementary in Brooklyn proves that Kindergartners can eat lunch and recycle!


Prior to the start of Organics Collection, KIPP's dedicated administration arranged a training to inform faculty of the program, which was followed by student presentations.  The school also implemented a color coded sorting system in which they purchased blue recycling bins for metal, glass, plastic, cartons, and painted their previously brown organics bins, orange.  The colors help reinforce sorting practices for students and make recycling so easy that even a kindergartner can do it! 

DSNY Announces Golden Apple Award Winners
The NYC Department of Sanitation's 2014 Golden Apple Awards recognize NYC schools for completing educational projects on recycling, waste prevention, composting, and neighborhood beautification.
 

Winning projects included incorporating recycling into science and literacy lesson plans, involving every student in creating mosaic murals made from bottle caps, transforming an unused concrete lot into an educational garden, and even developing on-site composting. Click here to see a complete list of all winning schools!

Upcoming Opportunities
Preserve Your T-Shirts and Do Good!
T-shirts are intimate. They're personal. They're like old friends, and they tell the story of a special time and place in your life, or the life of someone you love. You wouldn't hide your old friends in a drawer, would you? (Hope not.) We're here to give your t shirts new life! 
 
So pull out your beloved tees and let us create a one-of-a-kind t-shirt blanket that you'll treasure forever. Use promo code 'grownyc' at checkout on projectrepat.com for a 10% discount, and another 10% of your purchase will be donated to support GrowNYC!    
School Recycling is a Team Effort!
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