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Success Story: Crestwood Elementary School
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Food Waste Composting
A Crestwood Elementary School student adds spent coffee grounds to the compost bin. |
School Location: Kent, Washington
Participated in the Green Schools Program: 2002–2003
Waste Reduction & Recycling
- Crestwood's environmental club, Defenders of the Planet (DOP), made presentations to classes throughout the school about how the recycling program works.
- The school started to recycle milk cartons and lunch trays.
- Volunteer student monitors helped recycle paper, aluminum cans, milk cartons and lunch trays.
- Totes were placed in classrooms to collect single-sided paper for backside use.
- The school initiated an on-site food waste composting program. Food waste comprises an estimated 50 percent of the school's solid waste. Read Feeding "The Big Pig" and saving the planet (external) from the Feb. 3, 2007 edition of The Seattle Times to learn about Crestwood Elementary's experiences with the first Earth Tub composting system in a King County school.
- An all-school aluminum can drive to celebrate Earth Day raised $827.66, which was donated to Children's Hospital.
Water Conservation
- Crestwood achieved a 60 percent reduction in water consumption.
- Through the to installation of low-flow toilets and no-water urinals in the summer of 2002, Crestwood saved 230 hundred cubic feet (CCF) or 172,040 gallons of water and approximately $1,600 over a seven-month period (September 2002 through March 2003) as compared to the same seven-month period the year before.
- During the 2003-2004 school year, a 90-gallon water barrel was installed to collect rainwater for use in student gardens.
- Hand-washing rhymes that encouraged water conservation were tested by DOP members and then shared with the school.
Energy Conservation
- 95 volunteer student monitors were trained to regularly pull window blinds and turn off lights, computer monitors, printers, TVs and VCRs at the end of each day.
Addressing Environmental Issues in the Classroom
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Earth Heroes Event
Crestwood Elementary
School representatives at the May 1, 2003 Earth Heroes event. |
- Students throughout the school benefited from a variety of workshops ranging from biodiversity to water conservation, both in the classroom and off campus.
- Every two weeks, a "Green Team" prize was awarded to a student, staff member or teacher for exceptional efforts to conserve resources. Over 75 of these awards were given out in the 2002-2003 school year.
View a copy of Crestwood Elementary School's completed Green Schools pledge form (PDF, 104 K).
For more information on Crestwood Elementary School, contact:
David Staight, Principal
Crestwood Elementary School
Telephone: 253-373-2181
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