TUFSD Go Green

During the week of March 9th, Green Committee members tracked the paper used to make copies at each building in the district. We compared those numbers to averages taken earlier in the year and were looking to see which building could reduce its paper use by the greatest percent. It was a CLOSE contest, but Washington Irving won with a remarkable 40% reduction in paper used to make copies. The staff at Washington Irving will soon be enjoying free COFFEE LABS coffee and have our congratulations! We are most thrilled to report that, as a whole, the district reduced our paper use by 35% during this week. That is fantastic and we hope that staff continue the good behaviors that led to this reduction!  Here is how each building did in the Challenge:

Now, thanks to the Green Committee, all buildings in the TUFSD District have new recycling centers.  Students, staff and visitors can use the easy-to-spot centers to recycle paper, plastic, glass and metal.  We are very grateful to our custodial staff for their diligent emptying of the bins.  We are also pleased to see that staff and students are using them to effectively recycle.  Please look for these centers next time you visit any of our schools or the district administration building.

 

Article written in December, 2008 by Matt, student member of SHHS’s own S.P.E.A.R. Club (Students Promoting Environmental Awareness and Responsibility)     

           As you walk by the Main office chances are you’re going to notice the big sign with the leafy letters spelling out “Go Green.” A few more steps will bring you right into the student lounge, decorated from head to toe with posters dedicated to getting the word out on living the green life. Whether it’s facts about the time it takes for a plastic bottle to decompose or beautiful murals of coke-bottle trees, our little student lounge has an eco focus. This is all part of S.P.E.A.R.’s, Students Promoting Environmental Awareness and Responsibility, special S.P.E.A.R.-IT week (get it, like spirit week). The whole week were working to get the word out on what we face as citizens of a constantly changing environment and what we can do to help it. All across the lounge we can see the little things that can have a devastating impact, but more importantly, we see the little things we can do to help. Just imagine if those 200 plastic bottles in those cardboard boxes all went to recycling. Imagine if we just shut off every light whenever we leave a room. Imagine how much water we could save by simply turning off the sink when we brush our teeth. We hope our little environmental club was able to delight you with neatly piled bottles and leafy green posters, but we plea that we all take a little bit of time to really make the change that is needed right now.

                The recycling bins in our school have for too long been blue trash bins. However, in recent days we have received brand spankin’ new bins; big, blue, glorious bins. These bins can be found all throughout the school, with a special slot for your bottles, papers, cans, and mixed. Along with these new recycling bins come new, uniform labels for every recycling bin. These labels will work to end the guessing game that we call recycling. No longer will we have to second guess everything we put in these bins, but instead we will be clearly told what is recyclable and where it goes. I gotta admit, I’ve found myself mindlessly confused on where I should put my Green County sandwich bag, but with the new labels that will soon be in place on and over these bins we’ll have the information we need.

We are most proud to report that Washington Irving and W. L. Morse schools have both been successfully using email to send routine messages and flyers home to families since November of this school year.  With every message they send, the schools save hundreds of pieces of paper.   Together, they have saved more than 20,000 pieces or 40 reams of paper!

John Paulding and Tappan Hill have now also joined the program and have started to save hundreds of pieces of paper.  So far, they have saved more than 3,500 pieces or 7 reams of paper!

So, altogether we’ve already saved more than 21,500 pieces or 47 reams of paper!  According to the web site convservatree.org, 1 tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper.  So, our program has saved just about 3 large trees.

To learn more about paper making and all of the water, energy and wood resources that are required, visit these sites:

* http://greenedd.blogspot.com/2008/04/recycled-paper-doesnt-have-to-come-from.html

* http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?BenchmarkID=8&DocID=27

Classes in our district will be working together to calculate how much water and energy we’ve saved by using these programs, so stay tuned!

We are most grateful to the office staff in these buildings, the technolgy team, parent volunteers and the green committee members who have worked together to get these programs up and working.  We are also grateful for the support of our families who have been willing to change their ways and adjust to email notices.  This has been a great community effort!

 

The Green Committee is quite thankful for all of the ideas contributed by community members who have visited our Go Green blog.  Many people have been generous with their comments and contributions, and we will incorporate the ideas in our programs this Spring.  Here are a few excerpts from some of the most helpful comments:

Anne Bakala, 2nd Grade Teacher at Morse suggested, “The “one” memo that goes home might not have to go home on a whole sheet of paper. How about this idea? Have … the “green sheet” or “Going Green Memos” or “Eco Memos” …when we have a slew of memos as reminders, we can print them on the sheet, double sided, use different fonts, box it in, print it in its usual place, etc. “ 

We are pleased to report that we have started using email extensively in place of many paper memos to families who opt to receive them.  We also really like Anne’s idea and will continue to encourage schools to combine announcements to save paper.  Thanks, Anne!

Dylan Lacey suggested, “Turning off the lights is a good idea but recycling is an even better way for both teachers and students to help the environment. If we put bottle and can recycle bins in each class room teachers and students who bring bottled water or beverage into a class room will put it in that specific bin instead of throwing it in the garbage.”

We are pleased to say that we have put recycling centers used to recycle metal, plastic, glass and paper in all of our buildings.  We will be looking for ways to extend plastic recycling into classrooms and around buildings.  Great suggestion, Dylan!

Shelly Colley takes this idea one step further by suggesting, “An idea: Put recycling wastecans in each classroom that will be used for water bottles only. Select one or two children per class to be responsible for empyting each can to a central area. At the end of each month, take the bottles to Stop and Shop and turn the bottles into money. At the end of the semester, decide how the school wants to use the money –perhaps funding other “green” initiatives.”

Great idea, Shelley.  We have a great deal of hope for this promising plan!  Thanks again to everyone who has suggested ideas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contributed by Angel Linteau and Annie Randazzo

This fall, the middle school initiative of “going green” began with students studying sustainability and considering their impact on our environment. Students were asked to think of themselves as catalysts for change by looking at the characters in their independent reading books, as well as analyzing their own impact on the world. Students were asked to focus on ways to give back to their community. After reading William Wordsworth’s poem “Daffodils”, students thought it would be a wonderful contribution to the school environment to plant these flowers on school grounds. Like the speaker in the poem, students hope that each person who passes by the daffodils will take a moment to stop and appreciate the beauty of nature. As a lesson in metaphor, students were asked to sketch their initial bulbs and to track the growth of the flowers this coming spring. This shows investment and an awareness of nature and their surroundings. We look forward to what pops up this spring!

TUFSD Staff, Students and Community,

Our Reduce Our Use team is looking for great ideas for how we can reduce our paper use and/or electricity use in our buildings.  What tips, suggestions, best practices and new ways to do things can you suggest?

For example, we are about to launch an email flyers program in the elementary schools, which should cut down on the paper we use to send routine flyers to hundreds of TUFSD families.  This is a big effort that grew out of a great suggestion.  Smaller efforts and routines can help too and no suggestion is too simple!

Please “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this article to share your ideas or email a representative in your building (see the About Us page for a list).

Thank you!  The Green Committee

The TUFSD Green Committee and the EPTA partner to help friends and families of our district live in a more earth friendly way AND support the schools.

Greenraising.com is a web site on which anyone can purchase green products for home and school, including healthy and reusable SIGG water bottles and reusable lunch bags. Greenraising is also a fundraising tool. Whenever anyone shops on Greenraising.com and selects “EPTA of the Tarrytowns” as their affiliate, proceeds from the sale go back to our schools. To use Greenraising, either go directly to www.greenraising.com/?AFID=561 or go to www.greenraising.com and select “EPTA of the Tarrytowns” from the affiliate drop-down list at the top of the page.

Please take advantage of this unique partnership and send the link to family and friends, as anyone can participate!