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Cut our school’s garbage hauling cost. From November 2009 to April 2011 we have saved the corporation a total of $6,270.

Generated additional revenues for our school and the corporation.

Provided students with hands-on lessons in recycling.

Conserved limited natural resources and landfill space.  We have minimized our garbage dumps from 16 to 8 dumps per month. Each dumpster can hold 6 cubic yards of landfill waste.  We are saving 48 cubic yards of waste from going to the landfill each month.

Opened up opportunities for community partnerships and parent involvement.

Paper –through Paper Retriever Recycling Program

From March 2007-March 2011:  Collected a total of 54.21 tons of paper through the paper recycling program.  Our West Central Solid Waste grant of $350 helped in the success of the paper recycling. We also received 2 extra 45 gal. mobile recycling collection containers from Wal-Mart.

Recycled all plastic #2 cereal containers in the cafeteria during breakfast.

All in-house cardboard is put into our cardboard recycling bins instead of our trash that goes to the landfill.  This helps in reducing our school garbage. These items are transported to Roachdale’s recycling center.

Recycled in-house and put into our designated recycling bins.  These items are transported to Roachdale’s recycling center as well.

Have recycling trash cans located in all classrooms and restrooms that are next to a paper towel dispenser to collect all non-soiled paper towel.  These are also transported to Roachdale’s recycling center.

Currently collecting plastic bags from in-house to be taken to Wal-Mart or Krogers to be recycled. This helps with eliminating them from the landfill.

Collected all clean/emptied glue bottles and glue sticks throughout the school year and have saved over 1,550 from the landfill while making money through TerraCycle.

Drink Pouch Brigade—Our goal the first year was to save and collect 10,000 drink pouches.  We exceeded our goal in our first semester.  We collected a total of 12,000 drink pouches in the first semester.  Since the start of our recycling program we have collected and saved over a total of 40,000 drink pouches.

Writing Instrument Brigade—This brigade is designed to collect used ink pens, sharpies, highlighters, and markers.  We have collected and saved over 4,000 used writing instruments from the landfill.

Lunch Kit Brigade—Bainbridge had been recycling all lunchables during the lunch periods.  We have collected and saved over 2,500.

Chip Bag Brigade—We also recycle all chip bags from our cafeteria as well as students bringing them in from home.  We have collected and saved 11,000 from the landfill.

Tape Dispenser Brigade—Bainbridge has also been recycling tape cores and tape dispensers and have collected and saved over 300.

Candy Wrapper Brigade—Our students have collected and saved over 700 candy wrappers from going into the landfill.

Ziploc Bag Brigade—We have recycled over 3,000 Ziploc bags from the entering the landfill.

Future Brigades – We are currently signed up for future brigades.  They are gum packaging brigade, yogurt cup brigade, and solo cup brigade.

Through the program TerraCycle we have been given the opportunity to turn our “trash into cash.” We have raised over $1,200 thus far.

We have collected ink cartridges since November 2009.  We currently have a teacher signed up from each grade level and special areas with Staples Teacher Rewards Program.  Through this program you can deposit up to 10 ink cartridges per month.  You can earn $2 per cartridge and up to $20 per month for in-store credit.  We have collected an astonishing 1,162 ink cartridges this school year.  We have been able to give back $300 to each grade level since November 2009 to be able to use for school materials and supplies.  This is a total of $2,100 to our school.

Collected through Pace Butler.  Sent in 62 cell phones and have received $65 in extra revenue.

We also collect pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House.  We recently donated over 211,000 pop tabs in honor of a local boy injured in an accident to the Ronald McDonald House.

graders willing to help with daily recycling duties.  This team meets every other Monday after school to listen to guest speakers, have brain storming sessions, and organize recycled materials.

Bainbridge Elementary is also involved in the Putnam RISE Program (A Partnership for Renewal, Investment, Savings, and Efficiency.)  This program is geared toward teaching students how to conserve energy.  Bainbridge Elementary had participated in having parents fill out energy pledges for their households to help them conserve energy.  The teachers have been on board with turning off unneeded lights, shutting off one set of lights during the day, and unplugging items not in use.  We also have teachers who have added a new classroom job to their daily job list.  This new job title is, “Energy Conservationist.”

We send home monthly recycling newsletters to help inform parents of items we are collecting and recycling along with any recycling updates and or contest we may be participating in.

Students from the Bainbridge Green Team speak on the announcements every morning on ways they can recycle, conserve energy, and help encourage the teachers and students to continue their efforts.  Bainbridge Elementary is working very hard at educating their students in environmental awareness.  They are looking forward to helping their students form good habits on recycling and energy conserving.

We recycle chip bags to turn into cash.  We collect any size, any brand.  Please make sure when sending in with your child that they are empty please.  They may take them to the lunch room and deposit them into our recycling chip box.

We also collect empty ink cartridges.  This helps with raising money for supplies for our classrooms. We collect all brands of ink cartridges. When sending in with your child please make sure they are put into a Ziploc bag or wrapped in cellophane to help prevent leakage.  We will be having a contest starting in October.  The contest will run from October 4^th-October 29^th.  The class that brings in the most ink cartridges will win a pizza –n- pop party!  So, start collecting and sending in please!!!

We also are collecting any brand of clear tape dispensers and cores.  We will earn money for every dispenser and core collected and brought in.  Please tell your friends and family to collect and save!! Please keep this in mind during the Holiday Season!

Every Friday is “Bring Your Paper To School Day!”  We get paid for our tonnage—so save that paper!! NOTE:  No cardboard in paper bins please!!!Collecting paper earns us the “Green Paper!”

If you and your family buy drink pouches and use them at home, please save them and have your child bring them into school to collect.  Please make sure the drink pouches are empty and that the straw is taken out.  When your child brings them in make sure they are in a plastic bag so that they will transport easily to school.  Thank you for helping raise money for our school and keeping the drink pouches out of the landfills!!!  Our 2010-2011 goal is to collect over 18,000 drink pouches this year!  Help us reach our goal!!

We are also collecting old cell phones.  This will allow our school to raise much needed funds as well as protecting the environment.  You can bring in the old cell phones and place them in our collection bin located outside the school office.

During our lunch periods we are also collecting lunchables.  If you use lunchables at home please save them and send into school. We can turn in the cardboard that it comes in as well as the plastic film on the top along with the plastic container.  Please make sure they are empty and cleaned out before sending into school.

Bainbridge is also collecting Ziploc bags as well to turn into cash.  If you use Ziploc bags at home instead of throwing them out please send them in to help us earn money for our school.

Lastly, don’t throw away those unwanted ink pens, sharpies, markers, and highlighters that don’t work.  Send them in to be turned into cash! Thanks and happy recycling!!!!