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Success Story: Crestwood Elementary School
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Food Waste Composting
A Crestwood Elementary School student adds spent coffee grounds to the compost bin. |
School Location: Covington
Participated in the Green Schools Program: 2002–2003; participated again starting in September 2010
Level One of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in May 2011
Waste Reduction and Recycling
2010-11 successes:
- Crestwood Elementary recycles 51 percent of its solid waste.
- To reduce paper use, menus and custodial work orders are online, smart boards are used in classrooms, lunch rosters are printed on the backside of paper that’s been used on one side, and parents may opt to receive electronic newsletters.
- Student volunteers work with staff to turn food scraps into compost with the help of an Earth Tub, an in-vessel composting system that students call bEARTHa. (See 2002-03 successes below for background information about bEARTHa.)
- The school does not use lunchroom trays.
- Education about waste reduction and recycling is conducted regularly in the lunchroom and in assemblies, with leadership from head custodian Carol Talmadge, cook Judi Sperle, and teacher Bette Mansfield.
- Defenders of the Planet club members empty classroom recyclable materials into the school’s outdoor recycling container.
2002-03 successes:
- Crestwood's environmental club, Defenders of the Planet (DOP), made presentations to classes throughout the school about how the recycling program works.
- Volunteer student monitors helped recycle paper, aluminum cans, and milk cartons.
- Totes were placed in classrooms to collect single-sided paper for backside use.
- The school initiated an on-site food waste composting program. Read Feeding "The Big Pig" and saving the planet (external) from the Feb. 3, 2007 edition of The Seattle Times to learn about Crestwood's experiences with the first Earth Tub composting system in a King County school.
- An all-school aluminum can drive to celebrate Earth Day raised $827.66, which was donated to Children's Hospital.
Water Conservation
- In 2003, Crestwood achieved a 60 percent reduction in water consumption.
- Through the installation of low-flow toilets and no-water urinals in the summer of 2002, Crestwood saved 230 hundred cubic feet (CCF) or 172,040 gallons of water and approximately $1,600 over a seven-month period (September 2002 through March 2003) as compared to the same seven-month period the year before.
- During 2003-2004, a 90-gallon water barrel was installed to collect rainwater for use in student gardens.
- Hand-washing rhymes that encouraged water conservation were tested by Defenders of the Planet club members and then shared with the school.
Energy Conservation
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Earth Heroes Event
Crestwood Elementary
School representatives at the May 1, 2003 Earth Heroes event. |
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Earth Hero Award
Crestwood Elementary receives this King County award in 2003. |
- In 2003, 95 volunteer student monitors were trained to regularly pull window blinds and turn off lights, computer monitors, printers, TVs and VCRs at the end of each day.
Environmental Education
- In 2003, students benefited from a variety of workshops ranging from biodiversity to water conservation, both in the classroom and off campus.
- Every two weeks in 2002-03 a Green Team prize was awarded to a student, staff member or teacher for exceptional efforts to conserve resources. Over 75 of these awards were given out in 2002-03.
- Jan Simmons, fourth grade teacher, leads a program that raises and releases salmon.
Awards
- Crestwood received a King County Earth Hero at School award in 2003.
For more information about the school’s conservation achievements and participation in the Green Schools Program, contact:
Linda Butts, principal
253-373-2181
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