School Recycling Partnership Program

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.

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.

##