Bye-bye, igloos; hello, "Feed the Bin." Last school year the Wake County Solid Waste Management Division, in partnership with the Wake County Public School System and City of Raleigh Solid Waste Services, developed Feed the Bin, a new paper-recycling program for schools to replace the school igloo recycling program.
All Wake County Solid Waste Management programs and services are being evaluated, and in some cases changed, based on whether they are integrated, comprehensive, efficient, effective and sustainable – the school igloo recycling program is the latest example. Feed the Bin, to be phased into all Wake County Public Schools by 2007, is designed to increase services to schools, reduce costs, use partnerships with the school system and local cities/towns, and form the foundation for a sustainable education system for environmental stewardship.
"The strong educational component is key to sustain the program as well as teach students and staff the benefits of recycling," said Kelley Dennings, Wake County waste reduction specialist and School Recycling Program manager. "We hope Feed the Bin will kick off a broad environmental stewardship ethic that will migrate from schools into overall lifestyles."
With Feed the Bin, students will recycle paper in classrooms and aluminum cans and plastic bottles through the existing Child Nutrition Services program in school cafeterias. They will also have waste-reduction lessons in each school as students empty mixed paper collected in classroom bins into new roll-cart containers located on school grounds. Paper Stock Dealers, Inc., will collect the paper at a cost of less than one-third that of the existing program.
Though most igloo containers will be removed beginning September 1, the igloos for recycling paper plus the News & Observer carts for recycling newsprint will remain at the 37 existing sites for the transition.
Signs have been posted at the igloo sites to inform citizens about the changes, along with maps to direct customers to alternate recycling locations. As schools are phased into the program, students, faculty and staff will be given a special presentation and teachers will receive a "Feed Bucket" resource kit with lesson plans for recycling plus additional educational tools.
For more information about this program, please contact Kelley Dennings at 919-856-5277 or click here.