Woodland Joint Unified

PUBLISHED: October 15, 2019 at 9:33 am 

Woodland’s school district is taking a step toward going green and achieving zero waste by rolling out organics recycling programs in schools this year.

In addition to increasing recycling efforts at school, students can now reduce waste by separating their compostable material from the trash and placing it into organics recycling bins — so that material will be composted instead of ending up in the landfill, according to a statement from the city of Woodland.

Compostable waste, such as food scraps, milk cartons, napkins, compostable trays, as well as yard waste, can be composted into nutrient-rich compost for soil amendments. Sending less waste to the landfill also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as methane, from decomposing food and yard waste.

Nick Baral, director of maintenance, operations and facilities for the district, worked with their food services department to switch from non-recyclable polystyrene foam lunch trays to a plant-based compostable tray.

Baral also worked with Waste Management to set up organics recycling services and secure dozens of free green organics recycling bins provided by Waste Management.

Woodland’s Environmental Services division provided signage and support, as well as sponsoring environmental school assemblies by EcoHero to help students get excited and learn about the importance of recycling and composting.

During the first week of school, Baral, with support from the city and Waste Management, assisted students with sorting their lunchtime waste. While this process was new to most students, some students already knew how to sort their food waste from their recyclables and trash.

Since the start of the school year, five schools have implemented organics recycling: Beamer, Tafoya, Dingle, Spring Lake, and Plainfield elementary schools.

Additionally, Prairie, Zamora, Gibson, Whitehead, and Sci-Tech elementary schools are scheduled to start organics recycling this week.