Spring 2016| Volume 8, Issue 2

LYONS ECO-CLUB TEACHES THE TOWN Lyons Elementary

Eco-Club provided a

training to the Town of

Lyon’s staff in January. Students shared what it

means to be a Green Star

School, as well as proper

sorting at the town’s new

waste stations inside their

facilities. According to Eco-Club

parent Kristen Bruckner,

the club will receive a

Boulder County Zero

Waste grant to create a

training video, which will

be used for future zero

waste presentations. RYAN RHINOS REPORT ON GREEN STAR SCHOOLS In November, students from Ryan Elementary in Lafayette interviewed Michele Melio from Eco-Cycle on proper sorting. They then created and posted a video for Newscast 10 on Rhino TV.

WASTE WARRIORS WIN STATE COMPETITION Food waste is a big issue! Did you know that about a third of food in the U.S. is wasted. While Green Star Schools are composting, there is much more we can do with our unwanted food. Check out the video on food waste by the Bear Creek Elementary Waste Warriors Robotics team. The video won first place in the 2016 Lego League Colorado state competition. They competed against 78 other teams ages 9-14.

HOLIDAY REUSE BY KELLY SANSEVERINO 1ST GRADE TEACHER, CENTRAL ELEMENTARY, LONGMONT It is fun to celebrate holidays with our students, but it’s not so fun when the trash can begins overflow-ing at the party’s end! For both of Central Elementary’s winter celebrations, I wanted our students to implement more Zero Waste practices.

In December, I asked stu-dents to bring in their own mugs for our Hot Choco-late Party, and in February they each brought in a cloth napkin for our Valentine Punch Party.

With our cloth napkins properly in our laps, we drank out of glass punch cups, which we washed after the party.

It was so fun to see everyone with a variety of mugs and cloth napkins, and not see an overflowing trash can.

They also learned how many more times their cloth napkins and reusa-ble mugs could be used versus disposable ones.

COMPOST NEWS OF THE SEASON! Eco-Cycle will be offering the Classroom Worm Bin Project to Green Star Schools again next year, which includes a free worm bin, presentations and coaching throughout the school year. Those teachers who are on the waiting list this year will be contacted in the fall to set up their worm bin presentations. If you want to get on the waiting list for a worm bin, please contact Michele Melio at schools@ecocycle.org, or call her at (303) 444-6634, X118.

Louisville Middle School 6th graders were disgusted with the amount of food they found thrown away at their February trash audit.

Lila Sanseverino, Ella Manigold and Christine D’Epagnier toast their 1st grade classmates at Central Elementary. Photo courtesy of Kelly Sanseverino.

NEWEST GREEN STAR SCHOOLS

Indian Peaks Elementary in Longmont kicked off in January and Louisville Middle School kicked off in February. Louisville is the first middle school outside of the City of Boulder to become a Green Star School.

Centennial Middle School in Boulder will become a Green Star School on March 31, 2016.

Centennial’s sixth-grade Green Team will be trying a new model where team members volunteer during their lunch time and are responsible for emptying specific classroom containers each week. LEGO LEAGUE TRASH TROLL

Centennial’s Lego League Team worked with other middle school students at Casey and Manhattan. They created a funny Trash Troll video to teach others about the importance of sorting their waste properly.

WASTE-FREE LUNCH CONTEST

This is our second year to offer the Waste-Free Lunch Contest exclusively to Green Star Schools. To win, not only are students reducing their lunchroom trash, but they are also ensuring that their reusable utensils are returned to the kitchen for cleaning.

Last year’s first place winner was Whittier Elementary, which cut lunch trash by an astonishing 99.3% and had an 18% surplus of forks.

University Hill Elementary won second place by reducing their trash by 74% and losing only 5% of their forks.

This year ten schools are competing. Summit Middle School’s NetZero Club provided a special incentive to their students by designing and printing their very own buttons for backpacks and lunch bags.

Any student who packed a waste-free lunch or returned all of their durables to the kitchen received a button.

We will announce this year’s winners after Earth Day.

REDUCING WASTE SAVES MONEY

Here is a comparison on how much money families can save when packing lunches with reusable con-tainers versus disposable containers. WASTE FREE LUNCH IN JAPAN

See how students in Japan have waste-free lunches everyday!

DAILY REMINDERS ON ZERO WASTE

Linda Barrett, Principal’s Assistant at Columbine Elementary in Boulder, stated that students read

announcements encouraging Zero Waste practices every morning.

DOUGLASS FOOD WASTE CLUB

Douglass Elementary Food Waste Club is comprised of young leaders, who are educating their community about the incredible amount of food wasted every day. They worked with Boulder Rescue, delivered food from Sprouts to the Harvest of Hope Pantry, participated in the EPA Food Waste Coalition's kick-off meeting and were involved in the USDA/EPA Food Recovery Challenge. They also conducted a survey, which will add to their ideas for upcoming projects such as educational videos.

ECO-CYCLE’S CHILDREN’S USED BOOK PROJECT REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, REREAD

Order free books for school fundraisers, classroom libraries or student incentives from Eco-Cycle’s

Children’s Used Book Project. This includes classroom teacher sets on a wide variety of topics.

Contact Amanda Fox, 303-444-6634, ext. 103 or amanda@ecocycle.org.

GREEN STAR SCHOOLS®

Eco-Cycle | Green Star Schools News | Spring 2016 | Volume 8, Issue 2

SUBMIT INFORMATION FOR THE NEXT NEWSLETTER TO: Michele Melio Green Star Schools Project Manager (303) 444-6634, ext. 118

Summit Middle School’s NetZero Club Buttons. Photo courtesy of Stephen Goettsche.

NetZero Club Waste-Free Lunch contest button designers. Photo courtesy of Stephen Goettsche.