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King County Green Schools program success story: Medina Elementary School

Success story: Medina Elementary School

School District: Bellevue
School Location: Medina
Began participation in the Green Schools Program: February 2008

Level One of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in June 2009
Level Two of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in June 2010
Level Three of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in April 2011

Waste reduction and recycling

  • As of April 2011, the school has reduced its garbage volume from 16 cubic yards per week to 12 cubic yards per week, and increased its recycling rate from 27 percent to 40 percent.
  • The City of Bellevue partnered with the Green Schools Program to provide recycling assistance to Bellevue schools.
Medina Elementary School
Staff members happily accept the Green Schools banner.
  • In 2008-09, staff and students started a milk carton recycling program. Student monitors helped to launch the program and held recycling presentations on the kick off day.
  • Students created and distributed posters to promote recycling. Students also produced a video called the “just one” challenge to encourage students to make one change to conserve resources and help the environment.
  • Students are encouraged to finish their milk, rather than dumping it out, before recycling the milk cartons. Students also stack trays at lunch to reduce garbage volume in the outdoor garbage Dumpster.
  • All classrooms, offices and the cafeteria have recycling containers with stickers that list what can and can’t be recycled.
  • As a result of these efforts, the school reduced lunch garbage from 150 gallons to 55 gallons per day. Each day at lunch 64 gallons of recyclable materials are collected. Teachers estimated that during the school year 2,000 bags of garbage or enough garbage to fill two classrooms were recycled instead of sent to the landfill.
  • A City of Bellevue representative set up a booth at the school science fair to promote recycling.
  • To reduce paper use, the PTA newsletter is issued electronically and the principal’s letter is sent to parents electronically.
  • In 2008-09, the student environmental club purchased and sold reusable water bottles to raise money for compostable lunch trays.
  • In 2009-10, the school began to collect food scraps and food soiled paper in its cafeteria.
  • Approximately 200 gallons of compostable material is collected each week, and the school’s garbage volume was reduced from 2,640 gallons to 385 gallons per week.
  • An estimated 58 percent of the school’s lunchroom solid waste is collected for recycling and composting, up from the 11 percent that was collected before the food scrap collection program began.
  • Student volunteers helped to monitor each recycling and composting station in the lunchroom, answering questions and guiding other students.
  • To promote the new composting collection program, students created a slide show about composting and presented it to each classroom. Student volunteers also led sorting activities to teach each class what can and can’t be collected for composting.
  • During lunch, students performed skits and made announcements to encourage conservation practices.
  • The daily newscast was used to remind staff and students about composting collection. Announcements were made about the importance of composting and about the school’s recycling successes.
  • At Medina Elementary, printer cartridges are collected for recycling.
  • A City of Bellevue representative visited during lunch to share information about recycling, composting and garbage.
  • Four fourth grade classes participated in the “garbology” workshop.

Transportation

  • The school held an anti-idling campaign. Anti-idling reminders were broadcast in every classroom during the daily newscast, and student Green Team members visited each class to present information about idling.
  • On mornings during the campaign, Green Team members stood outside the school waving signs that read “No Idle Zone” to remind parents to turn off their engines while waiting for their children.
  • Student Green Team members tallied the cars that were idling. Before the campaign, they counted 18, but only two idling cars were counted after the campaign. All staff received an email with these results.
  • Staff received an email about the “Dare to Care about the Air” campaign which started on Earth Day 2009. During the campaign, walking to school and carpooling were encouraged.
  • The student Green Team developed a slideshow presentation about idling and alternative transportation methods that teachers could show to their classes on smart boards.

Energy conservation

  • Students organized a “low energy day” where classrooms tried to use as little energy as possible. On that day, energy use was reduced by 265.8 kilowatt hours.
  • Students placed stickers on every light switch as a reminder to turn off the lights when rooms are not occupied.
  • Energy conservation practices were shared in every classroom through the daily newscast.

Environmental education

  • Teachers started a school garden.
  • Near the garden, a worm bin is maintained as an educational tool. The worms are fed with food scraps collected from some classrooms.
  • Prior to Earth Day, Green Team members sent emails to teachers with links to various Earth Day activity sites.

Water conservation

  • Facts about water conservation were shared during the daily newscast.
  • Fourth graders used City of Bellevue water conservation curriculum materials.
  • The green team used the water conservation resource tub from the City of Bellevue.
  • Classes organized a field trip to a local watershed.
  • Four fourth grade classes participated in Nature Vision’s “Healthy Water Systems” workshop.
  • Students placed “turn water off” stickers by sinks throughout the school.
  • In the lunchroom and through the daily newscast, staff and students promoted the practice of drinking all of one’s milk and shared that a dairy cow must drink four gallons of water to produce one gallon of milk.

Awards

For more information about the school’s conservation achievements and participation in the Green Schools Program, contact:

Medina Elementary School
425-456-5400
King County Solid Waste Division mission: Waste Prevention, Resource Recovery, Waste Disposal

Contact Us

 Call: 206-477-4466

TTY Relay: 711

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