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SC29 - Green Initiatives

                                                                                               

 

Project Planet Earth - Reuse, Reduce, Recycle!

The Green Committee at Bell School strives to increase environmental awareness among our students, staff and community members.

Bell has made great strides toward becoming a green school and community. We were a pilot school for recycling milk cartons; we’ve converted our lunchroom from Styrofoam trays to reusable trays; and we’ve replaced the pre-packaged napkin and utensil sets in the cafeteria with silverware that allows students to take only the items they need. We have also started an idea in the cafeteria about not throwing uneaten/unopened items out. There is an area in the cafeteria were the students can place items from their lunches that have not been opened or eaten such as apples, oranges and other fruits. We are hoping to increase their knowledge of not being wasteful and that someone else might like it.

The 2011/2012 school year marked the debut of Bell’s new student conservation club, the 3-C Club, whose members are hard at work generating new ideas to help our School conserve, recycle and re-use. Take a look at the bullentin board on the first floor for some conservation ideas from the 3-C Club!

In 2012, the Green Committee won grants to build a teaching veggie garden. The 4th graders have taken a big ownership of the garden and we hope to add more grades as more teachers get involved and have great ideas for this fun venture. This garden will be used by all the students as a learning source for ideas such as composting, rain barrel, donating the harvest to a food pantry such as Common Pantry, and many other ideas the students can come up with.

In 2013 and 2014, the Fine Arts and the Green Committees teamed up to have a Family Fine Arts & Green Night. Some of the activities were the 1st ever Pecha Kucha, the farm in the city (fan favorite!) and many thanks to the Oquendo family, pottery wheel run by Mr. Busse, our very own Ms. Pearlmutter had a tile project, the 8th Grade Well Project was in attendance as well as a drum circle lead by Ms. Clancy and so many more activites. It is a must do for all.

During the 2014-2015 school year, we meet with a Zero Waste pilot program and due to the hauling schedules were denied entrance into the pilot. In December of 2015, we were awarded the Zero Waste program due to hauling schedules opening up and have "employed" Waste Ambassadors (2nd graders - 8th graders) in the lunch room along with lunch room monitors. The hope is to take our waste to 3% this school year. The Waste Ambassadors help aid students in sorting their trash to the correct areas of recyclable, composting and trash. Our 3% goal is for trash waste.

In addition to reducing the environmental impact of our school and community, these programs send a message to our students about the importance of respecting the earth.