School Waste Audits Begin

As a part of CVSan’s Green Ribbon Schools Program, Vannoy Elementary School completed the first waste audit for the 2019/20 school year. A team of students, staff, a parent volunteer, and CVSan staff worked together to sort through one day’s worth of garbage from the school and determined which items should have been placed in recycling and organics instead.

In this hands-on learning experience, the students at Vannoy Elementary School learned that out of 66 gallons of material collected in the school garbage from the day before, only 36.5% was actual garbage and 63.5% of the material could have gone in the recycling and organics.

This year’s audit results indicate that Vannoy Elementary School has reduced their overall garbage and that students are continuing to learn how to sort more of their materials into the recycling and organics. CVSan congratulates staff, students, parents, and volunteers at Vannoy Elementary School for the improvements they have made in waste reduction at their school.

Schools save money when material is sorted properly and everyone, including the environment, benefits when materials are diverted from landfill. CVSan provides resources, education and support to Castro Valley schools to help implement programs which reduce waste. For more information, visit www.cvsan.org/schools.