Consumption and
Waste Pathway
2013 - 2014
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Briargrove (BG) Elementary School (ES) in Houston, TX, entered the
Wrigley’s Litterless Campaign as compliment to our many on-going
school-wide recycling/waste minimization activities
◦ BG has actively recycled for the past five (5) Years, see:
http://bgroadrunners.org/bge-recycles/
◦ BG participates annually in the following recycling events:
 America Recycles Day: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
 Recycle Bowl Competition: 2011, 2012, 2013
 Green Cup Recycling Challenge: Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
◦ BG entered into HISD’s Green Schools Challenge Spring 2012
 Received dedicated blue paper recycling bins (7-gal) for all classrooms and plastic
& aluminum recycling bins (35-gal w/tops) for all common areas.
◦ BG Participated in the Green Apple Day of Service Fall 2013
 Reused approximately 8.000 lbs of bricks, flagstone, etc
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The Litterless Campaign also correlates with BG’s participation in the
International Baccalaureate Programme
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Programme of Inquiry: Sharing the Planet
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Purpose of Entering Campaign: To continue to improve recycling
implementation and waste minimization at BG by leveraging existing
IB curriculum, activities, training, and participation in national
recycling contests that use our students to measure and evaluate
how much and how well we recycle & minimize waste at our school.
Award: BG was awarded$500 grant to participate in the 2013-2014
Wrigley’s Letter Less Campaign.
◦ See: www.eco-schools-litterless.org/.
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Wrigley Litterless Campaign: The competition aims to reduce litter
and affect long-term behavior change among youth. It is run by the
Foundation for Environmental Education's Eco-Schools (Eco-Schools
International ) with the support of the Wrigley Company Foundation.
NWF Eco-School: BG’s acceptance of the grant allows us to work with
the Eco-Schools USA program and use our experience to work
towards becoming a NWF Eco-School.
◦ See: www.nwf.org/Eco-Schools-USA.aspx
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BG Successes: BG will be able to highlight and share our waste
minimization & recycling successes across the city, country, and
internationally!
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BG Publicized the Litterless Award through:
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LivingTree (school-wide media)
BG Announcements
BG PTO Website
Bulletin Boards
BG Followed the NWF Eco-School’s Seven-Steps
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Step
Step
Step
Step
Step
Step
Step
1:
2:
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5:
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7:
Eco-Action Team
Waste Audit/Litter Review
Eco-Action Plan
Monitor and Evaluate
Link to Curriculum
Involve Community
Create Eco-Code
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BG’s Eco-Action Team consists of:
◦ Eco-Action Core Team:
 Teachers (6)
 Student Government Association Representatives (5)
 Kids for Saving Earth Club Representative (1)
◦ Kids For Saving Earth (KSE) Club
 34 Members in 2013-2014
 See: http://bgroadrunners.org/kids-for-saving-earth/
◦ Various Eco-Oriented Groups/Activities
 School-wide/community participation through the year
 Too many participants to count 
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Various other Eco-oriented groups at Briargrove work
to educate our students to protect our Earth,
understand the importance of healthy eating and
living, and taking care of others in the community.
These eco-activities involve the whole school,
including parents and the community. The list of
Briargrove teachers, students, and parents that are
involved in these activities is too broad to list here.
Examples of these groups/activities are as follows:
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Edible School Yard/Urban Harvest Gardens
Butterfly Gardens
Green Apple Day of Service
Briargrove Orchard
Caring and Sharing Committee
Berry Earthy Fun Run
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Spring 2014, BG conducted a school-wide Recycling Questionnaire
◦ 10 recycling/waste minimizations questions were asked to assess
our ongoing recycling implementation
◦ Survey was given to one BG class in each grade, kindergarten
through fifth grade.
◦ Results indicate the following:
Question
1. Does your teacher talk about recycling in class?
2. Do you recycle at home?
3. Do you recycle at school?
4. Do you have throw away items you bring for lunch or snack?
5. Do you bring a water bottle to school to use throughout the day?
6. Do you use the blue recycling bin in your classroom?
7. Do you use just one side of your writing paper?
8. If you make a mistake when writing or drawing, do you throw away your
piece of paper and get a new one?
9. Do you know what the StryoGenie does in the lunchroom?
10. When you see papers on the floor or ground do you leave them there?
Ave*
86%
51%
99%
90%
21%
97%
82%
87%
76%
59%
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KSE Club reviewed the results of the recycling
questionnaire/waste audit & considered the results of
GSA’s Green Cup Recycling Challenge (Fall 2013)
◦ Selected five key items to incorporate in the Action Plan for
the remainder of 2014
◦ Grouped the items into three key “Action themes”
 Recycling Education
 Recycling Right!
 Waste Minimization
◦ Voted on the goals for these actions the remaining of 2014
◦ Deferred other actions to 2014-2015 year
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KSE voted to use the Wrigley Litterless Campaign funds
to help pay for a water bottle filling station.
BG Eco-Action Core Team reviewed and voted to accept
the KSE’s Action Items and Goals for 2014
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Eco-Actions & Goals for Spring 2014
◦ Continue Education on Recycling:
 Goal: 100 % of all teachers talk about recycling
◦ Continue to improve Recycling Right!
 Goal: 100% of all students recycle
 Goal: 100% of all students know about the blue bins
 Goal: 90% of students Recycle Right!
◦ Continue to Minimize Waste generated at BG:
 Goal 100% of Grades 1 – 5 know about the StyroGenie
◦ Looking forward to 2014-2015
 Build on lessons learned from 2014 Action Plan
 Build on lessons learned from BG Earth Day Picnics
 Encourage use of reusable water bottles
Purchase Water Bottle Filling Station!
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BG monitors and evaluates recycling successes through
measures and surveys from our annual recycling
competitions, and from the 2014 Recycling
Questionnaire conducted for the Litterless Campaign.
◦ Recycle Bowl Competition
 Three (3) years of data
 Measures how much we recycle over a 4 week period
◦ Green School Alliance’s (GSA) Green Cup Recycling Challenge
 Three sets of data (Spring and Fall 2012, Fall 2013)
 Measures how well we recycle
◦ Recycling Questionnaire for Litterless Campaign
 Survey of students to understand how well they understand
recycling requirements and implementation
◦ Resurvey periodically to compare to goals.
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The Litterless Campaign Correlates with BG’s participation in the
International Baccalaureate Programme:
“Sharing the Planet” Programme of Inquiry (Example 2nd Grade):
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Inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other
people and other living things; communities and the relationship within and between them;
access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.
Central Idea: All living things evolve and adapt with a changing environment
Key Concepts: responsibility, change, perspective
Related Concepts: living things, adaptations, natural resources
Lines of inquiry:
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Basic needs of living things
Adaptations of living things
Human impact on environment
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Why do we need to conserve? How would it affect the future generation if we did not conserve our natural
resources? How have people changed the environment?
◦ Questions/Inquiries:
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Resources:
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United Streaming Video resources; video notes; natural resource sort; Becky Luman - conservation
speaker
Learning experiences:
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Read: The Lorax - discuss what we could do to help earth, respecting resources,
Earth Day picnic –reducing trash
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Earth Day Picnic reducing trash
Bringing in recyclables
Observing natural resources
Writing Compositions about Caring for our Planet and the importance of Recycling and Reducing Trash .
Student Initiated Actions:
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BG Recycling/Waste Minimization Activities conducted
throughout the 2013-2014 year involved all members of
our BG community: Students, Parents, Administration,
Local Businesses
◦ Green Apple Day of Service (USGBC)
 Submitted event summary to the National ReUse Contest
 Event publicized on HISD’s Green School’s website
◦ National Recycling Competitions/Events
 Recycle Bowl Competition
 America Recycles Day
 Green Cup Recycling Challenge
◦ Earth Day Picnic for the Planet: Waste Minimization
◦ StyroGenie® Pilot Project: HISD/Waste Minimization
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Fall 2013, BG held our first USGBC Green Apple Day of Service…a day
used to involve our whole BG Community, beautify our school, and
teach conservation of natural and material resources.
We incorporated the use of approximately 8,000 lbs of repurposed
materials from Houston's ReUse Warehouse to spruce up our school's
newly installed butterfly gardens, orchard trees, and outdoor
classrooms!
More than 55 teacher, parent, and student volunteers lined the science
garden with reclaimed limestone blocks, giving it a much needed
border.
We also circled our school’s fruit trees and butterfly bushes with
reclaimed bricks to ensure the young trees and plants are not damaged
by lawn crews.
We repurposed a large, 1,000 lb concrete planter at the school's back
entrance, on which each of our student volunteers placed their
handprints forming beautiful tree leaves to remember the day.
Volunteers included our campus custodial crew; a local landscape
company; a local grocery store; and the whole BG community: students,
teachers, admin, and the school principal working on a Saturday!
We entered our project in the National ReUse
Competition & were featured on HISD’s Green
Schools Website.
2013 NATIONAL REUSE CONTEST BRIARGROVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, HOUSTON, TX
On September 28, 2013, Briargrove Elementary School, Houston, TX, was thrilled to be able to incorporate the use of approximately 8,000 lbs of
repurposed materials from Houston's ReUse Warehouse to spruce up our school's newly installed butterfly gardens, orchard trees, and outdoor
classrooms! Despite some rain during the day, more than 55 teacher, parent, and student volunteers lined the science garden with reclaimed
limestone blocks, giving it a much needed border. We also circled our school’s fruit trees and butterfly bushes with reclaimed bricks to ensure the
young trees and plants are not damaged by lawn crews. In addition, we repurposed a large, 1,000 pound concrete planter at the school's back
entrance, on which each of our student volunteers placed their handprints forming beautiful tree leaves to remember the day. We are proud that so
many volunteers came together to accomplish these tasks, including our campus custodial crew helping to prepare the planter's surface ready to
paint; a local landscape company lending their forklift to relocate the planter; a local grocery store supplying fruit for snacks; and the school principal
working on Saturday. We also have great future projects for our school’s Kids for Saving Earth Club to utilize the remaining ReUse items: a salvaged
trellis, birdhouse, seeds, plants and flagstones for our school gardens. Our collective efforts have given us the opportunity to educate our community
that reusing construction materials, rather than sending them to a landfill, is a wonderful way to save money and protect our Earth.
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BG annually enters several national recycling contests that we use to
measure how much and how well we recycle at our school compared
to other schools around the country: Recycle Bowl Competition,
Green Cup Recycling Challenge and America Recycles Day .
KSE prepared for BG’s participation in the various Fall 2014 schoolwide recycling events by painting signs using reused materials to
publicize the events and to promote recycling at our BG School
Carnival.
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The Recycle Bowl Competition, sponsored by Keep America
Beautiful, is a nationwide contest between schools to measure how
much is recycled during the month-long contest (Oct 21- Nov 15).
Fall 2013 marked the third year for BG to participate
◦ The first two years, BG involved the whole BG community
◦ This year, we concentrated on school-wide, internal recycling & waste
minimization.
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KSE Club encourages our students, teachers, staff, and community
to make an extra effort to recycle by posting their signs!
During the three years BG has participate, we submitted reports of
our recycling data to be compared to schools around the country.
BG results are as follows:
◦ Fall 2011: 3,592 lbs
◦ Fall 2012: 4,617 lbs
◦ Fall 2013: 2,730 lbs
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America Recycles Day on November 15 is one day a year
communities across the country have come together to educate,
motivate, and celebrate our recycling successes.
BG wrapped up our participation in this year’s Recycle Bowl
Competition by celebrating in America Recycles Day!
◦ We communicate our Recycle Bowl Competition efforts
◦ We publicize ARD to our community through:
 School Marquis
 Signs painted on re-used materials
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Fall 2014: BG competed in our third Green Cup Recycling Challenge
Challenge: To encourage the entire school community to ReThink
Waste & Recycle Right!
Used the month-long contest to raise awareness about recycling and
waste reduction, clarify expectations with signage and
demonstrations, and improve our recycling rates.
BG 4th Grade students surveyed each classroom’s trash and recycling
bins on a weekly basis, to see how well we recycle amongst our own
classes, grades, and schools across the country.
The Challenge generated excitement around recycling, and has
encouraged good habits of life-long environmental attentiveness.
This Year we continued to improve on our recycling Right Right! Our
school-wide average for correct recycling over the 4-week period for
the three years BG participated in the Challenge:
◦ Spring 2012: 52% correct
◦ Fall 2012: 59% correct
◦ Fall 2013: 79% correct
We incorporated this method of survey in our
Litterless Campaign monitoring & measurements
Spring 2014 Bin Survey for Wrigley's Litterless Campaign
On 05/21/14 survey, Mr. Cutler's 4th Grade Class surveyed one recycling bin and one trash can per class (every class
in each grade). For each location, they entered the number of bins that contain at least one item that doesn't belong
in the "Incorrect" columns. The also entered the number of bins that were "correct."
Date of Survey:
5/21/2014
By Grade
# of
Correct
Trash Bins
# of
Incorrect
Trash
Bins
# of
Correct
Recycling
Bins
Kindergarten
6
0
6
0
1st Grade
2nd Grade
7
7
0
0
4
7
3
0
3rd Grade
2
4
4
4th Grade
5th Grade
5
6
1
0
Total Scores
Percent
Correct
PERCENT
CORRECT ALL
BINS
33
5
Location of
Bins
87%
# of
Incorrect
% of
Recycling
Correct
Bins
Trash Bins
Grade
% of
Correct
Recycle
Bins
Average
Correct
Place
05/21/14
(location
of bin)
100%
100%
100%
1
K
Co-Winner
100%
100%
57%
100%
79%
100%
3
1
1
2
Co-Winner
2
33%
67%
50%
6
3
5
6
1
0
83%
100%
83%
100%
83%
100%
5
1
4
5
32
6
Co-Winner
84%
86%
* The overall average "correct" in the 4-week fall survey was 79%
* The average "correct" in each of the 4-weeks of the fall survey were 82, 80, 77, and 78%, respectively
*The average for the whole school in a "spot" check conducted for the Wrigley Litterless Campaign was 86% (a 7% improvement)
*The goal for the 2014 action plan is 90%; BG will continue spot checking even after the Wrigley Litterless Campaign is over.
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On April 11th, BG held our 4th Annual Earth Day Picnic.
This year, the goal was to create minimal waste.
During the week preceding the event,
school-wide announcements were made
and teachers discussed with their students
the importance of reducing waste and bringing
waste-free lunches.
The day before the event, the Principal sent out an all-school
phone message, LivingTree Post, and email.
On the day of the event, each class was given a trash bag to
measure the amount of waste each class made, and parents
were invited to join their students outside, and requested to
support our goal by packing/bringing lunches in items that are
not disposable.
We had great participation, but had some challenges with our
measurements that we will work on in future Earth Day Picnics.
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BG was selected as one of a few HISD Schools to
pilot the StyroGenie®, an innovative new technology
designed to minimized trash volume created by
school lunch trays
Styrofoam lunch trays are melted and compressed
to substantially reduce waste volumes.
◦ Went from ~20 bags to ~7 bags of lunchtime trash
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Melted “blocks” can be reused
Results of StyroGenie® use:
◦ Reduces transportation to landfills
 Minimizes gasoline use
 Reduces emissions
◦ Reduces landfill space
Briargrove Roadrunners
Racing to Save the Earth!
Members of Briargrove ES
Eco-Action Core Team and
Kids for Saving Earth Club
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In addition to the School-wide Eco-Slogan, BG KSE
Club recites weekly the following promise*:
The Earth is my Home, I promise to Keep It
Healthy and Beautiful
I will love the Land, the Air, the Water
And all Living Creatures
I will be a Defender of My Planet
United with Friends, I will Save the Earth
* Adopted with permission from Clinton Hill’s Kids for Saving Earth Club: www.kidsforsavingearth.org/