Brooklyn Center Public Schools

BROOKLYN CENTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Earle Brown Elementary School Grades: K - 6

Program Rollout Date: September 4, 2007

No. of Recycling Stations in the Cafeteria: 1 (see diagram)

Kitchen/Serving Area Janitor Dish Room Closet

Lunchroom Organics Liquids Trash Entrance

Tubs for Silverware

Lunchroom

To/From Playground Lunchroom Exit

Recycling Station Characteristics: 2 5-gal. pails for liquids 2 plastic tubs for silverware 4 – 5 Brute containers for organics 1 Brute container for trash Dish room counter for stacking trays The District has ordered color-coded plastic Toters on wheels (32-gal. size for elementary school and 64-gal. size for high school) for organics. They are currently waiting on delivery and should have them by mid-October.

Signage/Posters: Currently none on containers or walls. They’re having 400 signs/posters printed up in both English and Spanish. These will be distributed to each classroom in both schools, posted in the lunchrooms of both schools, and placed on all organics/trash containers in both schools.

1 Types of Serving Trays/Eating Utensils: Mostly reusable trays and silverware. Sometimes use disposable trays.

Recycling Station Monitoring/Assistance: During the morning breakfast, one of the kitchen staff monitors the station. Lunch periods are more of a problem. Two custodians are in/out of the lunchroom and provide some oversight and emptying of containers. They cannot be there all the time, though, and need to be supplemented with other staff. Steve will be talking to the principal about the situation.

SSO Backend Servicing: 6-yd dumpster serviced by Randy’s Sanitation twice a week.

Observations: Despite the problem with monitoring and no signage/posters, kids are doing very well separating their items. Having said this it should also be noted that the lunch period I observed was heavy with organics (very little packaging waste due to the menu items that day). This is not always the case.

Another reason why the program is working well in this school is that the head custodian (Chip) is very supportive of the program and spends more time monitoring the program and working with the kids than he really has time for. He wants to make sure the program is successful.

One other observation is that the trash dumpster on the backend of the building is away from the dock and requires the custodians to walk 40 to 50 feet to dump trash whereas the organics and cardboard/paper dumpsters are right off the dock. This has motivated the custodians to recycle and compost more materials. Steve is finding more recyclable paper ending up in the cardboard/paper dumpster and more non-recyclable paper waste (paper towels from the bathrooms) in the organics dumpster. As a result, he’s beginning to see a reduction in trash generation and when his organics and paper dumpsters are serviced they are fuller than they use to be.

Brooklyn Center High School Grades: 7 – 12

Program Rollout Date: September 4, 2007

No. of Recycling Stations in the Cafeteria: 1 (see diagram on next page)

Recycling Station Characteristics: 1 plastic tub for silverware 4 Brute containers for organics 3 Brute containers for trash Dish room counter for stacking trays Waiting on the delivery of color-coded plastic Toters on wheels for organics (see above under the elementary school description).

Signage/Posters: Currently none on containers or walls. They’re having 400 signs/posters printed up in both English and Spanish. These will be distributed to each classroom in both schools, posted in the lunchrooms of both schools, and placed on all organics/trash containers in both schools.

2 Types of Serving Trays/Eating Utensils: Mostly reusable trays and silverware. Sometimes use disposable trays.

Entrance/Exit

Serving Area Kitchen Lunchroom

Organics Tub for Silverware Trash Dish Room Condiment Bar

Recycling Station Monitoring/Assistance: Head custodian was doing it for the first 2 to 3 weeks. Monitoring is now done by a variety of staff working the lunchroom including teachers and paras. Custodian will assist occasionally if they are short or if other staff needs some additional training.

SSO Backend Servicing: 6-yd. dumpster serviced by Randy’s Sanitation twice a week. As there is no loading dock at this location, custodians currently need to lift the bags of organics and drop them in the dumpster. A portable (on wheels) cart lift has been ordered and should be onsite by mid-October. This will help alleviate concerns regarding manual lifting of heavy bags.

Observations: Area where the recycling station is located is too small for orderly, efficient access. Unfortunately, it’s the only space they have available. At times staff at the recycling center is overwhelmed with students and it is very difficult to monitor the situation.

They have the system here set up where organics is on one side and trash on the other with the exception of one organics container with the trash. This lone container is to catch any organics that are in bag lunches. For the little organics they get in this container they may be better off doing away with it and just having one side dedicated to organics and one side dedicated to trash. Actually, they should probably experiment with different setups to see what works the best. For example, having all the containers (2 trash and 2 or 3 organics) on one side might give more room for traffic flow (Option 1 on the next page). Another option would be setting the containers across the area at an angle (Option 2) with a table for stacking trays. If there is enough space for all the containers and a table for stacking trays this may be the most efficient flow pattern.

Despite the problems with crowding and difficult monitoring they’re getting pretty good separation. 3 Option 1

Tray Stack

Dish Room Tub for Silverware

Trash Organics Trash

Option 2

Tray Stack

Dish Room

Organics Tub for Silverware Trash