Schools

Farmington Public Schools Sees Sharp Increase in Recycling

The district has collected 62,000 more pounds of recyclables in the first six months of this year than in all of 2009-2010.

The Abitibi Collection Report & Environmental Savings for indicates that the District's recycling efforts have increased dramatically, netting the district nearly $2,000 in the first six months of the 2011-2012 school year. 

Abitibi Paper Retrievers are the green and yellow bins seen in school parking lots used by student green teams, as well as the communities of Farmington and Farmington Hills. 

School officials announced this week that the district has captured 654,126 pounds of recyclables in the first half of this year, compared with 592,000 in all of 2009-2010. The report bypasses the 2010-2011 school year, due to the closing of four buildings and grade level reconfiguration of schools. 

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District staffers attribute this green escalation to an increased awareness of district sustainability initiatives, as well as hard work from all student green teams. Curbside recycling programs led by the green teams exist in all schools, from the Pee-Wee Power Savers on up to the Interact Club Green Team.

Waste Management (WM) reported that an estimated 264.5 tons of recycling was picked up during the 44-week period of 2011 (summer month pick-up is on an on-call basis). Abitibi began keeping track of this for districts in 2011; so there is no comparison data from 2010. 

Find out what's happening in Farmington-Farmington Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Recyclables placed in the WM bin at each school include plastics #1-#7, polystyrene, aluminum, glass, cardboard and boxboard.

 

2009-10

2011-12(6M)

Total Pounds Collected

592,000

654,126

Total Tons Collected

296.0

327.1

Dollars Earned

$1,652.00

$1,959.65

Containers Collected

450

488

 

Environmental Impact based on Pounds Collected

2009-10

2011-12(6M)

Total pounds of paper collected

592,000

654,126

Total pounds of paper collected would be like stuffing this many elephants into an Abitibi recycling bin

49

55

Number of trees used to make an equal amount of paper

5,032

5,561

Total cubic yards of landfill space saved

888

981

Total cubic yards of landfill space saved equates to this many tractor trailers filled with paper

15

16


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