“Drink it then sink it!” campaign a success

Williamsburg, VA— Molly Moo, Marva Maid Dairy’s mascot character, greeted Stonehouse Elementary students in the cafeteria to celebrate the highly successful recycling pilot test, DRINK IT THEN SINK IT!, in which the district has been participating. The excited children showed Molly how they have learned to be environmentally responsible by enthusiastically depositing their plastic milk bottles, other bottles and cans into DRINK IT THEN SINK IT! specialized recycling bins. Each child received a got milk?® pencil.

Since the pilot study began in March, 2005, Stonehouse Elementary, Berkeley Middle and Jamestown High School from Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools district collected about 117 cubic yards of non-compacted recyclable material. Equal to filling a 53 foot semi-trailer, this material has been diverted from the landfill and processed into usable items. Projecting this amount to all 12 schools in the district, over a nine month school year, 36 semi-trailers of non-compacted recyclable containers would be eliminated from the waste stream.

Jane Haley, Supervisor of Child Nutrition Services for Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools comments, “Support for the program has spread to cafeteria staffs who have been recycling plastic containers and cans from their kitchens. And, our custodial staff reaction has been only positive, viewing this no differently than regular trash removal.” Haley is planning to continue recycling at the district and is currently working out the logistics.

Involved in the pilot planning and conducting the recycling, TFC Recycling (Tidewater Fibre Corp.) is entering the school and commercial business market in a big way. TFC is applying residential recycling standards to schools and businesses in that different recyclable materials do not need to be separated. This makes the program easy to implement. TFC is in the process of purchasing an optical sorting system which will further streamline their recycling methods.