King County Green Schools Program recognizes Issaquah School District for recycling, conservation

With assistance from the King County Green Schools Program – which helps schools to conserve natural resources and become better stewards of the environment – the Issaquah School District is recycling more, conserving more energy and water and saving money.

District students and staff have been so successful at improving recycling and resource conservation practices over the past two years that the Green Schools Program is honoring the district with special recognition at a Dec. 12 school board meeting.

During the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years, the Green Schools Program worked with district resource conservation manager John Macartney and other district staff to set goals and improve performance in waste reduction and recycling, energy conservation and water conservation.

"The Green Schools Program helped students and staff in all buildings progress from recycling some paper, cans and plastic bottles to now recycling nearly all our paper, cans and plastic bottles," Macartney said. "I'm very pleased with how our schools have made recycling part of the school culture and I'm sure the Green School Program has positively impacted home recycling."

To reduce garbage and increase recycling in each of the district's 23 schools, the Green Schools Program conducted site visits, and provided recommendations and hands-on help. Students and staff learned about the importance of recycling and what materials are recyclable. The program provided 275 recycling containers for classrooms, offices and lunchrooms, recycling stickers for each recycling container, and 58 dollies to facilitate transport of recyclable materials to outdoor recycling bins.

In 2007 two Issaquah schools began to collect lunchroom food scraps for composting at Cedar Grove Composting, thanks to a partnership effort between the City of Issaquah and Waste Management, the city's garbage, recycling and food waste hauler.

Food left at the end of the school year that would have been tossed out when it reached expiration dates over the summer was instead donated to a charitable organization that could provide the food to families in need before it expired.

Nine schools in the district cut garbage disposal costs. For example, Apollo Elementary School cut lunchroom garbage from an average of four to five bags per day down to two bags per day, while recycling volume increased by 30 percent.

Despite adding five buildings since 2000 and increasing its total square footage by 15 percent to more than 2 million square feet, the school district has:

• Improved recycling in each of its 23 schools, thereby reducing garbage volume by 984 cubic yards and increasing recycling volume by 1,044 cubic yards per year (compared to 2005-06);

• Saved nearly $12,500 in garbage disposal costs annually by reducing, reusing and recycling – that's a 6.3 percent reduction in disposal costs when comparing 2006-07 with 2005-06;

• Reduced energy use natural gas and electricity) by 12 percent (compared to 2000-01); and

• Reduced water consumption by 33 percent and irrigation by 20 percent (compared to 2003-04).

Puget Sound Energy supported the Issaquah School District's energy conservation strategies by providing technical assistance, grants and rebates. The City of Issaquah's Resource Conservation Office supported the district's efforts by purchasing recycling containers for schools in the city and paying for start-up monthly collection costs.

"Since its inception in 2003, the King County Green Schools Program has helped more than 200 schools to improve their conservation practices," said Dale Alekel, manager of the program. "It's been a pleasure working with the dedicated staff of the Issaquah School District to help them expand recycling and conserve natural resources."

The Green Schools Program's conservation efforts support the Issaquah School District's mission and student learning goals, which promote global responsibility and citizenship by teaching students to use natural resources in a sustainable way and which recognize how their personal and collective actions impact the environment.

More information about the King County Green Schools Program is available by calling Alekel at 206-296-8457 or visiting www.metrokc.gov/dnrp/swd/greenschools/.