Educating Tomorrow

GREEN GRADES - NYC Schools Recycle! from GrowNYC on Vimeo.

Last summer, GrowNYC hired Robert Lock as a school recycling coordinator.

Since September, when Lock's "Recycling Champions" program began, he has visited 17 schools in all five boroughs. The charitible giving wing of Coca Cola company funds his activities.

Lock is especially focused on cafeterias, said GrowNYC's assistant director, Julie Walsh, where he tries to implement the recycling of beverage containers and the composting of food waste. In classrooms, he begins by focusing on paper recycling.

NYC’s Departments of Sanitation and Education both require schools to recycle, and the DOE aims to double recycling in schools by next year, which may be difficult to track because they have no waste auditing system for schools in place.

The Department of Sanitation does not pick up food waste, but Walsh said that schools with gardens have started implementing their own composting programs. The Brooklyn New School has one of the most ambitious school food waste worm composting systems in NYC.

On the Department of Sanitation's website, educators can order free signage related to recycling or request a visit by Department of Sanitation staff to go over recycling proceedures with custodians.

You can reach Robert Lock at rlock@grownyc.org or 212-676-2081.