PS40 Reduce & Reuse Challenge!!

PS40 City wide & Borough Winner!!!

2009-10-20T17:55:00.000-07:00

PS40 is awarded the city wide & borough winner for the 'Reduce & Reuse Challenge' Golden Apple award!!!! Congratulations to everyone! An amazing effort by all!!!!

EARTH WEEK Healthy Delicious Bake Sale

2009-03-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

Midway through Earth Week, eco-parent Julie organized a 'healthy' Bake Sale. All of the food for sale was made with whole grains and/or organic ingredients. Everything was delicious and nutritious, nothing was left at the end of the day.

EARTH WEEK IS HERE!!!!

2009-03-12T06:35:00.001-07:00

PS40's 2nd ANNUAL EARTH WEEK HAS ARRIVED!

Weeks and days and hours of hard work by PS40's Super Green Eco Team, the PS40 Adult Eco-Committee and many volunteers were put in to create this year's Earth Week celebration.

There are informational displays on a variety of subjects.

This was created by Michael and his daughter. It describes several environmental issues including transportation over the years, plastic bags, and organic vs local produce.

A favorite charity of the Super Green Eco Team is the "Trees For The Future" organization. We will continue collection through the school store until the end of the school year.

This display describes the health risks our children face from diesel exhaust fumes, when riding a NYC school bus and the solution that is biodiesel.

Preserve recycles #5 plastic and turns it into toothbrushes, razors, cutting boards, plates, cups, forks, knives, spoons and much much more.

Heifer International

Microfiber Cloths, learn about them and then buy them.

Other eco-merchandise for sale:

EARTH WEEK is almost here!

2009-03-11T22:06:00.001-07:00

Everyone chips in to help put Earth Week together.

How many bottles will we collect? The person who guesses the closest will win a brand new PS40 Camelbak water bottle!

Plastic plates, cups, toothbrushes made from yogurt containers?!!!

Envelopes and beautiful necklaces made from magazines?!!! What will they think of next!

Principal Felder welcomes everyone to Earth Week!

Here it is!

The Super Green Eco Team Meeting on March 6th

2009-03-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

The Super Green Eco Team met on the Friday before Earth Week. We had a lot to cover.

Alex's mom, a horticulturalist, came to our meeting to talk about the possibility of a Plant Sale, Roof Garden and what we can do at Earth Week regarding plants. We discussed each of these issues.

WE CAN GROW PLANTS TO SELL AT THE PLANT SALE

We'll need pots for the plants; Each class can grow plants at Earth Week; The students should water the plants when they dry out; families will come to the Plant Sale;

WE CAN HAVE A ROOF TOP GARDEN

We can grow plants for school lunch; no chemicals, only organic; what can we grow? carrots?, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, herbs, ivy; all classes should be involved; start growing plants in the classrooms, then move to the roof; students can take plants home over the summer

WE NEED TO LEARN, THEN TEACH HOW TO TAKE CARE OF PLANTS.

Don't put plants on heater; put plants in the sun; No green house; find a place for plants in the school; ask the science teacher for help; use the pre-k corner window for plants; use worm poop to fertilize plants.

We want to thank, SGET member Miriam for taking the minutes for this meeting.

Yearbook Photo

2009-03-02T16:05:00.000-08:00

The Super Green Eco-Team posed for the Yearbook.

This is one committed group of students and parents. Everyone works very hard to contribute to the effort to make PS40 more 'Green'.

Preparing for Earth Week

2009-02-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

In preparation for Earth Week, some members of the Super Green Eco-Team met on Saturday to paint signs, boxes, and displays.

"AWESOME EARTH!"
"Ask not what the Earth can do for you, but what you can do for the Earth"

With pizza as mid-day treat, the Super Green Eco-Team painted all the signs and boxes. We want parents and students to bring to school plastic bottles, yogurt containers, used books, and some specific wrappers (for the Terracycle project) the week before and during Earth Week.

Earth Week is 1 week and 2 days away!

The OFFICE......

2009-02-28T15:06:00.000-08:00

...is using more recycled paper these days!!!! yay office!

Have you seen the new bulletin board yet?

2009-02-28T14:39:00.001-08:00

Have you looked at the new bulletin board yet? If not, check it out!

It's all about plastic water bottles and disposable coffee cups. Here's some interesting information about PLASTIC BOTTLES...

Only 14-25% of plastic bottles used in the United States are recycled each year.

60 million plastic bottles end up in landfills and incinerators PER DAY.

22 billion bottles are not recycled PER YEAR.

To produce plastic bottles per year for the U.S., 15 millions barrels of oil are used, enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year.

The production of the bottles also releases 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air.

Plastic bottles are extremely unstable. Temperature changes and reuse can leach dangerous chemicals into their contents.

Many people believe that bottled water is a healthier choice than tap water. In reality, however, the standards for municipal tap water are far stricter than those for bottled water. Furthermore, tap water is almost free, while bottled water can cost as much as 10,000 times more than tap water.

The manufacture, transportation and disposal of plastic bottles have staggering environmental consequences. Even recycling requires a tremendous amount of energy and resources. Discarded bottles pollute rivers and endanger wildlife. Bottled water is no healthier than tap water and much more expensive.

So, what is a thirsty, health and environment-conscious person to do when they want the convenience of bottled water?

Reusable bottles offer a healthy, environmentally-friendly and convenient option.

And here are some Facts About Coffee Cups......

1. Did you know that disposable paper coffee cups are NOT recyclable?

Why?

During the manufacturing process, cups are laminated with a plastic resin called polyethylene. This helps keep beverages warm and prevents the paper from absorbing liquids and leaking. The plastic also prevents the cup from being recycled.

Every paper cup that is manufactured and coated with plastic resin ends up in a landfill. Once in a landfill, the paper will begin to decompose. This process releases methane, a greenhouse gas more powerful than carbon dioxide.

2. Did you know that coffee cups are RARELY made from recycled material?

Why?

Most cups are manufactured using 100% bleached virgin paperboard. Why don’t manufacturers use recycled paper? Firstly, FDA regulations are strict when it comes to allowing recycled paper pulp to be in direct contact with food and beverages. Secondly, recycled paper isn’t strong enough to hold a liquid.

3. What does the manufacturing of coffee cups involve?

The process involved with manufacturing paper cups is extremely resource intensive. Manufacturing paper requires harvesting trees and using machines to turn the wood into wood chips. The chips are heavily washed to remove any dirt, and then mixed with more water and processed. The resulting paper pulp is dried and the fibers are pressed together to make paper. The entire process requires a substantial amount of water, energy and trees.

4. What is the impact of all that garbage?

Considering our nation’s love of coffee, the amount of coffee cups used and thrown away is staggering. In 2006, Starbucks reported that their stores had used 2.3 billion cups. It is estimated that Americans consume more than 16 billion cups per year. In 2006, it is estimated that paper cups accounted for 252 million pounds of garbage resting in landfills.

5. Are there any alternatives?

The positive environmental impact of reusable coffee cups can be enormous. In 2003, Starbucks found that coffee drinkers used reusable cups an estimated 13.5 million times, which kept 586,800 pounds of garbage out of landfills. In 2006, this number increased to 17 million and an estimated 674,000 pounds of avoided waste.

Do you use a reusable water bottle? Do either of your parents use a travel mug? Email a picture to elsiesmom@mac.com and we’ll put it up on the board! Let's keep it growing!

Classrooms with Badges!!!

2009-02-23T08:38:00.000-08:00

Several classrooms have passed inspection and have proudly hung their badges on their front door.

CONGRATULATIONS!
Keep up the good work!

Super Green Eco Team Meets on February 13th

2009-02-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

During our last meeting, the Super Green Eco Team piggybacked onto the Valentines Day Bake Sale and sold our reusable coffee mugs with a free cup of donated Starbucks coffee. It was a tremendous success. We sold out of our reusable coffee mugs!
Also at this meeting, former PS40 student and now Salk student, Mack told the team about a reusing program that Salk was doing in the hopes that PS40 would join in. The program involves selling certain used items (aka garbage) such as plastic target bags, empty Kool Aid Jammers pouches to a company who turns them into usable products that are sold again. We were all very interested and will begin collecting these items at Earth Week.

Parent Eco-Team leader, Gabrielle, taught us all about microfiber cloths. We have a goal to reduce the amount of paper towels used in the classrooms. In this effort every classroom was given microfiber cloths in September and we want ot be sure all classrooms know how to use the cloths are are in fact using the cloths.

We talked about the roof garden, inspections, and various needs of the classrooms.

At our next meeting we will focus on EARTH WEEK March 9-13!!!

Super Green Eco Team Meets and prepares for the Sports Night Used Equipment Sale.

2009-02-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

On Friday January 30th the Super Green Eco Team met to discuss our on-going Reducing and Reusing plans.

The discussions took place all while the team was painting the signs for the Sports Night Used Equipment Sale. Multi-tasking is a necessary skill for SGET members.

Olivia and Kathryn handed in their essays explaining how and why they thought building a garden at our school was a good idea. (The essays are at the bottom of this post)

All classrooms were inspected for recycling compliance and water bottles were counted, reusable vs. disposable. Select members of the SGEC will create graphs, charts and statistics documenting the change in usage of reusable and disposable water bottles.

James, Penny, Gus and several other inspectors handed in completed inspection forms.

Michele handed out new inspection forms to all inspectors and Suzie gave badges to inspectors who had classrooms that have passed inspection.

Our next meeting is Friday, February 13th, the following is on our agenda:

Gabrielle will give a brief workshop on microfiber cloths.
Salk School student, Mack, will explain Salk's Recycling, Reducing, and Reusing program.
We will oversee the school's Valentine's Day Bake Sale, making sure everyone is Recycling, Reducing, and Reusing properly.
We will continue the water bottle calculations and discuss the classroom inspections.

Kathryn's essay:

Roof Garden

I think that we should have a roof garden. I’ve got a ton of reasons why. First, we can have organic fruits and veggies. Second, we can actually use rainwater. Another reason is that as the plans grow we can add beauty to the school.

Organic and Local fruits & veggies, even if you buy them, you’re still using food miles. Growing them, you get the health benefits of organic, and seriously, I doubt that it would be so hard that you had to use gas to get it (the veggies) to the cafeteria. (Speaking of which, this might create veggie burgers and better salad.)

Using rainwater to water the plants would be a big plus when it comes to being green. Big gallon jugs where the tops are almost but not quite cut off, would be great at collecting water. Also, members of the eco-team could take turns watering it.

As the plants mature, the beauty of our school will too. In the spring, all kinds of blossoms will appear. In the fall, reds, golds, and maybe purple, and brown all over the school. Summertime, and our school will be in a glowing mass of leaves. Winter, and snowcaped branches are sure to charm. Lets not forget the shade factor. What do you think. Ooops, it’s

The End

Olivia's essay:

Sports Night TAG SALE is a success!!!

2009-02-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

The Super Green Eco Team painted all the signs for the Used Sports Equipment Tag Sale. Items that were sold include used: ice skates, roller blades, a wetsuit, bats, balls, a sled and much more.

People were so happy to get their sports equipment for their children. Skates were the most popular!

We also sold old PS40 T-shirts and Polo shirts that had been neglected in the school's store. Nothing is going to waste. And recycling bins in the cafeteria! Yes! Congrats to PS40 for finding a great way to REDUCE & REUSE!

The Super Green Eco Team Brainstorms New Ideas!

2009-01-29T08:15:00.000-08:00

The Super Green Eco Team met last Friday, January 16th and discussed several important topics:

Alex suggested we have a plant sale instead of a bake sale. This idea was supported by all members. Michele suggested we hold a plant sale during our Earth Week Celebration. Suzie & Michele will speak with Alex's mom, a plant store owner, about how to make this happen.
During our discussion about how to improve recycling in the cafeteria, Alyanna, Ava and James noted that there were not a lot of signs identifying the recycling bins. We've decided to paint large signs to hang all over the cafeteria, so there should be no confusion.
Penny suggested we change the light bulbs in the hallways to more environmentally friendly bulbs. This issue will be brought up to Shawn.
Lucy, Miriam, and Lucianna were very concerned about the use of styrofoam trays in the cafeteria. Everyone agreed. This is an ongoing issue and further discussion will take place to come up with some sort of action.
Kathryn suggested we try to get more recycled school supplies. Several other students were interested in this as well. Suzie and three members are going to create a sub committee to try to get eco school supplies to sell at the school store and have packages of these supplies available to parents next September.
Reesa and Julian brought up the issue of the leaky water fountains around the school and what a waste of water it is. Shawn, PS40's head custodian, spoke to the group and explained that the fixtures were all very old and would be replaced through out the school within the next few months.
Roy, Daniel, and Sarah said their inspections had gone well. Suzie handed out to all the members (inspectors) the new Badges with the 2009 winning logo. We should start seeing them on classroom doors soon.
Olivia, Alex, and Kathryn spoke thoughtfully about creating a garden either on the roof or in the courtyard. In the garden they suggested growing plants that would bear fruit that could be served in the cafeteria. A lively discussion followed. Olivia, Alex, and Kathryn were asked to write a summary of their ideas to be discussed further in the hopes we will be able to implement this plan.

At our next meeting, Friday January 30 we will discuss:

Paint signs for the Sport Night's recycled sports equipment table
classroom inspections
how to study the reusable water bottle usage in each class
the garden summaries
school supply committee
Earth Week, March 2-6
bagels and cream cheese will be served

The following meeting will be Friday February 13th when we will have a MicroFiber cloth workshop and a presentation by a Salk school student and their recycling plans.

Sports Night Tag Sale!

2009-01-21T04:19:00.001-08:00

What a GREAT way to 'Reduce & Reuse!!'

Ballot's Counted! AND.....

2008-12-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

The ballots were counted this morning...And here is your new 2008-09 Super Green Eco Team Logo by 4th grader-Jackson!!!

The Ballot box was jam packed full of votes...thank-you everyone for voting and thanks to all the students that submitted drawings, they were all great and we'll use them for posters during the year.

Look for the new logo and the 3 runner up images posted on the bulletin board this week!

Logo & Store Signs

2008-12-08T14:53:00.000-08:00

Please remember to cast your vote for 'The Reduce & Reuse Challenge' Logo. All the submissions are posted on the bulletin board in the cafeteria. And they look great!

Also, some Super Green Eco Team members stayed after school today to paint signs for the new stainless water bottles & reusable travel mugs that are going to be on sale in the school store. A great holiday gift for you loved ones and the earth! Also very in keeping with our Reduce and Reuse Challenge! Check out the signs- there's a lot of interesting facts on them.

Logo for Reduce & Reuse!

2008-12-05T07:36:00.000-08:00

HI! Today we had our 3rd meeting with the Super Green Eco Team! We were looking over some student submissions for the 2008-09 Reduce & Reuse Challenge Logo. This image will visually represent the entire schools' efforts this year in the challenge, so it's a big deal. One of the team members, Reesa, had a FANTASTIC idea! And that is to put all the drawings on the bulletin board in the cafeteria, with a slot-box and let the whole school vote for their favorite....! Wow! Great idea. And Daniel, who created last years logo, volunteered to create the voting box. So, please please please take a look at them next week (Dec. 8th-12th) and cast your vote!

Here's a peek at todays meeting.....

Scrap Paper!

2008-11-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

Did everyone see the morning sign Ms. Felder wrote on November 6, 2008? If you missed it, here it is!

Welcome back!!

2008-09-17T19:14:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Last year PS40 won the NYC Dept of Sanitation's TrashMaster's 'Recycling' competition; making PS40 the best elementary school recyclers in Manhattan with a prize of $3000!

The student eco-team, known as the 'Super Green Eco-Team' worked hard to teach their fellow students and teachers how and what to recycle & inspected each classrooms' recycling bins and system. They designed a logo which was printed on badges that were awarded to classrooms who passed their inspections. The logo was also printed on organic shirts and sold at the Earth Week celebration. The goals of the eco-team were based on the specific requirements of the competition in which the eco-team competed.

This year, the 2008-09 eco-team will participate in the 'Reduce and Reuse Challenge' competition. They will brainstorm on ways to educate the students & PS40 administration about how to reduce and reuse things at school and eventually to bring those ideas home.

The student eco-team is led by two PS40 parents, Suzie & Michele, and supported by the parent eco-team and the entire PS40 administration.

If anyone would like get involved, or has an idea they would like to share, please bring it on, everyone is welcome!! Email Suzie (suziebaer@mac.com) or Michele (elsiesmom@mac.com).

It's going to be a great year!

Remember, REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE....RETHINK!! We live on an amazing planet, please let's all learn to take care of it!