A green path to conservation
Contest inspires sixth-graders to spread the word
What began as a contest to reduce trash among sixth-grade classrooms in Westborough's Mill Pond School has parents and teachers thinking about how they can conserve in their own lives.
"Trim Your Trash" was the brainstorm of Brooke Hauser, who teaches science and world geography at Mill Pond.
Last week, 200 sixth-graders in six classes signed up for the Green Team and competed to produce the least amount of garbage. The winners recycled and composted their way to victory by throwing out just one-third of what their class previously discarded.
"My hope is a lot of these habits will stick and hopefully last forever," Hauser said. "We can all take action and we can all make a difference even if we start small."
A parent has volunteered to embark on a study of how much cafeteria food is tossed away by students and work on ways to reduce the waste. And the Student Council has volunteered to pay for hand dryers in the sixth-grade bathrooms to lessen paper-towel waste.
"It can be a little something that can make a big difference," said Student Council adviser Sheila Labriola, a sixth-grade language arts and social studies teacher. Labriola said the project might be like many others at the school and result in donations -- this time for the hand dryers -- from parents and community members.
"It just trickles down," she said. "Who's to say it's not going to become a great thing that will be vetted throughout the school?"
With Hauser's prodding, students started conserving by changing some everyday habits. They began using both sides of a sheet of paper; saving outdated fliers in a scrap drawer for reuse; placing food scraps, such as banana peels, in a compost bin behind the school; and collecting bottles and cans for recycling.
"We've been digging in the trash to pull out the garbage" that can be recycled, said 12-year-old Katherine Nazzaro, who made a thank-you note for the principal out of recycled school notices.
"I kind of hope it won't just end this year, and even in 50 years when Miss Hauser retires," she said, "I still want people to continue the Green Team."
The contest might even improve students' diets.
"We're all bringing in fruits and vegetables instead of junk," Katherine said.
Students also encouraged adults to be more waste-conscious. They called companies, asking that they send fewer catalogs to the school, and suggested turning off classroom lights when sunshine is sufficient.
Students in Hauser's homeroom tied Donna Avery's homeroom to share the victory; they both discarded just 3 pounds of trash over the five-day period. Jessica White's class was next with 5 pounds of waste; trailing the field was Paul Chamberlain's class, which generated 13 pounds. Hauser estimates that each classroom had generated more than 10 pounds of trash per day, topping 50 pounds per week, before the contest began.
"Usually our trash can is filled and now it's almost empty," said 11-year-old Jenna Casello, who wore a green T-shirt emblazoned with "Green Team."
Hauser devised the trash contest as part of her studies at Harvard University, where she is working on a master's degree in environmental science. She was given the task of creating change in her workplace. "The amount of waste in our school always bothered me," she said.
Principal Irene J. Hatherley said the contest meshes with the character education component of the Mill Pond School's mission. Each month teachers incorporate a particular value into their course work. April was conservation month.
"We're all in this together, whether we're talking about global warming or trash," Hatherley said. "I was just talking to my husband the other day about how much trash we generate."
The contest also tied into a districtwide recycling initiative for the school year, said Superintendent Anne Towle, Large, colorful recycling dumpsters were placed outside all schools last fall as part of a high school project.
"I think the children have made us all aware of what we need to do and how important it is," Towle said.
And that's why the superintendent was rummaging through the family trash last Thursday night, she said, fishing out a recyclable plastic container that her husband had tossed away. 