Recycling and Litter Prevention Program Overview

Studies show that 80% of school waste is recoverable and over half of that is paper. 

This recycling program is collaborative effort of Keep Putnam Beautiful, the Putnam County School District, the Putnam County Department of Sanitation and WastePro in an effort to increase the county’s recycling rate and to reduce the amount of waste going into our land fill in an effort to reduce costs.

Keep Putnam Beautiful, Inc. received a grant from the U.S Department of Agriculture to pilot the program at four rural elementary schools:  Middleton Burney Elementary in Crescent City, Interlachen Elementary, Browning Peirce in East Palatka, and Melrose Elementary.  

The Recycling and Litter Prevention Program will have a kick-off event at each school, as well as presentations on the topics of recycling, litter prevention, closing the loop, recycling at home, and starting a recycling team at each school.

Student will be sent home a packet of materials including a Parent/Child agreement to recycle at home.  Students returning the agreement will receive a backpack with the recycling logo.

Each school will form a Recycling Team to oversee and plan each school’s individual recycling activities, programs, and incentives. Other incentive items will be provided to school teams through the USDA Grant and donations, as well some startup funds for each school’s team.

Each team’s goal will be to generate funds from recycling drives to fund more incentives to encourage the students, parents and teachers to continue the recycling effort. Recycling Teams will include volunteers made up of students, parents, teachers, administrators, lunchroom staff, and housekeeping staff.

Teams will conduct a waste audit of the school and look at ways to reduce and recycle lunchroom waste, classroom waste, and how they can help close the recycling loop.  They will also encourage others to put litter in its place and help educate others about why it’s so important for our environment. Teams will also be encouraged to help develop contests for students and classrooms.

KPB staff and volunteers will conduct follow up activities with individual classrooms, groups, and school Recycling Teams. A packet of classroom follow-up activities will be provided to teachers to encourage reinforcement.

If you are interested in volunteering for this program, please contact Keep Putnam Beautiful, or the individual school where you would like to help.

This material is based upon works supported under a grant by the Rural Utilities Service, United States Department of Agriculture.  Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Rural Utilities Service.