In January of 2008 Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman announced his groundbreaking initiative to partner with public schools within the Town on a comprehensive recycling program. As the lead agency in local solid waste management planning, the Town of North Hempstead recognized the potential of recycling to prevent large amounts of solid waste from entering the landfills and saving significant taxpayer dollars.
To date, North Hempstead has partnered with 9 of the Town’s 11 school districts and has supplied every single classroom and office in each participating district with recycling bins. The Town has also committed to carting all the recyclables collected in a total of 47 buildings. With more than 30,000 students participating, the recycling program reaps an average of 25 tons of paper and 6 tons of co-mingled recyclables a month.
In the three years since Supervisor Jon Kaiman instituted the North Hempstead School Recycling Partnership Program the results have been:
• Recycled an estimated 1200 tons of paper • Recycled an estimated 265 tons of comingles (plastic, aluminum, glass) • Collected an estimated 60 tons of electronic waste • Winner of the 2009 NYS Environmental Excellence Award • Placed the "Weigh In" Program in 23 schools • Instituted the Recycled Artwork Contest that was exhibited at the NYS Capital in Albany in 2010 • Instituted the "Refill not Landfill" Video Contest • Instituted the School Composting Cooperative of North Hempstead • Instituted the “Caps Back” bottle cap recycling partnership with cosmetics giant Estee Lauder • Instituted the Pharmaceutical Collection Program services for every participating School District • Began Recycling Outside of the classroom – Installed recycling bins on outdoor High School playing fields • Instituted the “Rock n Wrap” Partnership with “Rock and Wrap It Up!”, the NY Giants and The NY Mets to “Fight Against Hunger While Reducing our School’s and Town’s Carbon Footprint”
Implementation of this sweeping School Recycling Partnership Program in our schools teaches an invaluable life lesson to the youth who will eventually become the stewards of our community and our precious environment. Not only are they likely to pass on the practice of recycling to their peers and members of their household but they will become lifelong advocates for greening our environment.