Recycling in school awarded

The 2010 American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) School Recycling Award was presented to the Parkway School District of Chesterfield, Missouri. The annual awards recognize outstanding school, community, and business, paper recycling programs across the country.

Parkway School District’s recycling program serves more than 18,000 students in 29 school buildings. The program began in 1990 after several elementary students made a presentation to the board of education requesting that the district be a better steward of the environment. Since that time, expanded efforts have resulted in an Environmental Services Department that oversees all District sustainability efforts. Results are impressive, including the recovery of more than 1,031 tons of newspaper, magazines, catalogs, direct mail, office paper, envelopes, and brochures and more than 138 tons of paper-based packaging in 2009.

Students remain actively engaged, collecting paper in each classroom in deskside totes. Parkway Materials Recovery Specialists then make their rounds through their school collecting the full totes and taking them to green and yellow Paper Retriever® bins, a centralized recycling location. The paper is then recycled through the AbitibiBowater’s Paper Retriever program, which pays the Parkway School District for each ton of paper recycled through the bin. Parkway uses these earnings to pay for school supplies, technology or other worthy projects. The bins are also easily accessible so that families and the surrounding community can participate in the paper recycling program.