As of October 2016, fifty percent of K-12 schools in King County outside City of Seattle have received assistance, tools, and recognition from the King County Green Schools Program. Join these 248 schools and get help to engage your school community in improving waste reduction, recycling, and other conservation practices.

King County Green Schools Program provides assistance, school visits, and the resources and tools (including recycling containers and signs) schools need to make improvements. Sign up to participate.

Here are a few examples of what schools are doing to engage students and staff members in conservation practices.

International Community School in Lake Washington School District began collecting compostable materials in 2015. With assistance from King County Green Schools Program, the school’s Green Team worked with custodial staff and conducted waste audits, created an instructional video, and made signs on proper sorting. The waste audit prior to starting the collection of compostable materials showed that 80 percent by weight of the school’s garbage was compostable. Since the program was established, nearly all food waste has been diverted from garbage and is transported to Cedar Grove Composting facility where it is turned into compost.The school also hosted a Student-to-Student Sustainability Summit on October 12 for middle and high school students in Lake Washington School District.

Student volunteers at Pine Lake Elementary School in Issaquah School District made outfits out of materials that would have been thrown away and created a “Trashion Show” to showcase the outfits. In addition to giving new life to unwanted products and raising awareness of reuse, students had fun!

Intermediate grades at Carnation Elementary School in Riverview School District studied the local watershed through field excursions. To better understand pollution prevention, students walked to local rivers and recorded healthy and non-healthy riparian zones and then made posters to communicate the importance of healthy riparian zones for migrating salmon.

Facility members in Kent School District gave teachers “caught you being green” notes when teachers properly turned off equipment at the end of the school day. Horizon Elementary School teachers received the greatest number of “caught you being green” notes in the district.

Contact Dale Alekel, 206-477-5267 for information about the King County Green Schools Program.