RE Sources’ waste assessment program with Bellingham Public Schools (BPS) is helping schools cut waste and save money. Through targeted waste audits, recommendations tailored to each school, and hands-on implementation help, this collaboration is saving taxpayer dollars while keeping waste out of the landfill — and the results speak volumes.
From Waste Assessments to Real-World Impact
Starting in 2023, RE Sources partnered with BPS to evaluate waste management at six pilot schools. It began with interviews of custodial staff to co-design the Best Management Practices for waste handling in Whatcom County public schools. RE Sources began assessing each school at the start of the 2024-25 school year. By measuring actual waste generation and identifying contamination in recycling streams, our team was able to recommend right-sized waste services, recommendations for school-wide bin placement, and tools for each school to teach their students about the new waste sorting systems. The results by the end of the school year? Big changes, including:
- Alderwood Elementary, Geneva, Parkview, Roosevelt, Silver Beach and Wade King custodians and food service staff learned about cost-saving measures that could be easily implemented.
- A reduction in dumpster size and dialing back recycling pick-ups for paper and cardboard — locking in meaningful cost savings and ensuring they pay only for what they actually use.
- Adding food-soiled paper products and paper towels to FoodPlus (compost) bins that weren’t full of food. This led to a reduction in the volume of trash in dumpsters.
- Uniform bilingual Spanish/English signs throughout the schools so more of the school community understood the proper way to sort.
- Toolkits for custodians, by custodians. Practical, co-designed solutions for compost and food recovery as well as eliminating single use plastics helped staff make the transition smoother.
The total potential annual savings across these schools is over $10,000, allowing BPS to redirect funds to classrooms and student programs. Just imagine what would be accomplished if every school could participate!
Tools to Green Your School
RE Sources also offers free waste-related education kits that schools can borrow to bring sustainability to life in the classroom. These kits include:
- Litter & Waste Investigation Kit
- Recycling Right Kit
- Composting & Decomposition Kit
Designed to be teacher-friendly and engaging to students, these resources make it easy to integrate environmental science into existing curricula while supporting BPS’s waste reduction goals.
Support provided, in part, by a grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology.