Port Washington School District
It all started with a call from a student teacher from Port Washington—she said, “We want to recycle in the school,” recalls North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman. This simple request started Kaiman thinking about the 11 school districts in the Township of North Hempstead, and exactly how efficient, or inefficient the recycling efforts were for the schools involved.
“The initiative was there, schools wanted to recycle—but the program was not,” says Kaiman. This is what sprung the Supervisor into action. “As the whole idea of municipal consolidation grew, we created an office of intermunicipal coordination.” At the time, each school was responsible for its own recycling—and getting rid of that waste. Kaiman and other town officials began asking themselves why they don’t consolidate the recycling process in schools. The town was already looking into solid waste and recycling programs—the existing 15-year contract will come to an end in April of 2010. “It doesn’t make sense to do a piecemeal approach, so we opted for a town-wide program. We pick it up and it’s guaranteed the material will be recycled,” says Kaiman proudly. “We’re the first township to put a bin in every classroom for recycling, in a comprehensive manner.”
The consolidation is a huge investment for the town—but one that everyone agrees is well worth it, according to Kaiman. The Town of North Hempstead will dedicate a half million dollars to school recycling. Either way someone will pay for it, and if the school districts pay individually it’s more expensive, according to the Town.
“We’ve spent the last year and a half looking for the next generation of waste disposal,” says Kaiman. But beyond disposal, the Town is looking to create the next generation of Earth-conscience citizens—and it seems to be working. Eighth-grader Michael LoGrasso wants all of his classmates in the Carle Place school district to know how important it is to protect the health of their most prized inheritance: planet Earth.
Great Neck School District
“I’m hoping it will encourage my friends not to litter and to start recycling,” LoGrasso says regarding the the delivery of more than 300 recycling bins to the Carle Place Middle/High School on Cherry Lane.
“We will be doing a great service for our town, our taxpayers and our planet,” Kaiman told administrators and students at the launch last month of the town-wide recycling program in the Carle Place school district.
Among other things, the movement calls for the town to provide 222 recycling bins that will be distributed to every classroom in the Manhasset School District.
Besides Carle Place and Manhasset, three other school districts, Sewanhaka, Manhasset, Herricks, Port Washington and Great Neck have received brand new recycling containers. Westbury and East Williston are scheduled to begin the program shortly. The goal is to have all school districts in the town participating in the program, says Kaiman. And it’s not just the schools that reap the benefits of the consolidated recycling programs. North Hempstead is also going to partner with Mass Transit Authority–and soon there will be recycling bins at stations. Kaiman says that there is a concern with security at railroad stations however, and clear recycle bins will be necessary. And if making the stations and the schools as green as possible isn’t a feat in itself, the town also plans to expand its e-waste program to include biannual drop offs at local schools. Currently residents must come to the waste depot.
Kaiman sums it up by saying, “We want to draw the community in, and we’re looking for ways to grow and make sure we’re governing green.”
