Dear Families:
Mount Madonna School has been a proud member of the Green Business/Schools Program for several years. As a Green/Waste Free School, we are constantly looking for ways to reduce the amount of trash we generate as a school and instead reuse and recycle many of the items we use on campus every day. (Did you know that Santa Cruz County generates more than one million pounds of trash everyday and only 14% of our waste is recycled?)
Please help us to be a part of the solution by incorporating some of these ideas into your child’s school day routine.
Pack a low waste lunch. The majority of a school’s trash comes from students’ lunches!
- Pack your child’s lunch in a reusable lunch bag/box with reusable containers. See the links below to a list of reusable lunch systems
- Try to buy snacks in large family-sized bags and repack them into reusable containers, avoid single-use packaging.
- Pack a thermos or a reusable water bottle for beverage. If you use juice boxes please consider filling a reusable bottle with juice.
- Ask your child to bring everything home from their lunch, so you can see what they’re eating and what they’re not eating, to allow you to adjust proportions and reduce waste.
Make all school events low-waste events. When planning a school/community event, providing snack or a class or a fundraiser, please keep in mind ways to make it a low-waste event:
- Use reusable tableware, cups, and utensils. Each elementary classroom has a set of reusable tableware.
- Serve items in bulk instead of individually wrapped (avoid juice boxes, individually canned drinks, small packaged items like string cheese or chips)
- Set up a compost collection container that can be taken to the garden compost after the event
- Set up recycling bins near all trash cans and make an announcement reminding people what’s recyclable.
Recycle: Most of what a school throws away (up to 68%) can be recycled! Become aware of what’s recyclable. Here is a brief list:
- all paper, cardboard, phone books
- aluminum cans and foil, tin, steel, small scrap metal, aerosol cans
- clear and colored glass
- all plastics #1-7, gallon milk jugs and soft plastic bags
- batteries (in a bag)
Compost: Our school collects all food scraps except meat (skunk, raccoon, etc. attractors).
- Up to 33% of a school’s trash can be leftover food. All paper and utensils sold in the snack bar are compostable but most often end up in the trash.
- Think about starting a compost pile at your house to reinforce the process happening at school.
Re-use! If you have children’s toys, clothes, books, and school supplies that your children can no longer use, donate to our yearly rummage sale, or to a local charity.
Thank you so much for considering these ideas for making our school a truly Green/Waste Free School.
For more information about reducing waste at home or at school feel free to contact me at
Much Appreciation,
Jessica Cambell
Fifth grade teacher
Lunch Systems to Help in Packing a Waste-Free Lunch
There are many more available, these are just a few ideas – with descriptions provided by each company:
Laptop Lunch System – Bento Style Box
Laptop Lunches are American-style bento boxes designed to help families pack eco-friendly lunches for school, work and travel. These sustainable lunch boxes come with a book of healthy lunch ideas and lunch-making tips and recipes and are reusable, recyclable, and dishwasher safe. Our lunchboxes contain NO phthalates, bisphenol A (BPA), or lead.
LunchBots are a healthy alternative to plastic containers for packing lunch to go. Made from the highest quality 18/8 stainless steel, LunchBots do not leach chemicals like plastic does. Eco-friendly and reusable means saving money and the environment.
ECOlunchboxes – Stainless Steel System
ECOlunchboxes has turned back the clock and uses traditional materials: stainless steel lunch boxes packed in handmade cotton lunch bags. Our ECOlunchbox Kit contains a machine washable lunch bag, three matching cloth napkins, a stainless steel food container and a bamboo spork. We believe that lunchbox by lunch box we can green our world a whole bunch!
This budget-friendly lunch bag is spacious and lightweight designed to be used with Rubbermaid LunchBlox food containers, but you can also use it with whatever Tupperware you have at home. This lunch box is safe for the microwave, dishwasher, freezer and BPA-free.
OmieBox is a segmented lunch box with two temperature zones, which allow you to store both hot and cold foods in one box. The OmieBox Bento Box comes in various colors, and it includes a built-in thermos food jar. The lunch box itself is double-walled and leak-proof, so you don’t have to worry about spills and its contents will stay cool and fresh.