Zero Waste Silicon Valley strives for a healthy and clean environment through education and community involvement. They partner with the East Side Union High School District to bring sorting stations to East San Jose schools, making waste sorting easy and convenient for all students. Changing our waste sorting practices in East Side San Jose is long overdue and vital in creating a sustainable school district. Cleaner and greener schools bring us one step closer to achieving zero waste in our community.
Our Zero Waste team provides four color-coded and clearly labeled bins to make the sorting process as straightforward as possible. They are there to answer any questions Piedmont Hills High School students may have about what goes where. Once students have the necessary knowledge, they can encourage their peers to sort their items and guide them on how to do it properly. This helps reduce waste on campus.
There are four main categories to sort; liquids, recycling, food waste, and landfill. The yellow liquid bin allows students to empty beverage containers first before recycling them. This provides an easy way to dispose of liquids so that beverage containers can be recycled cleanly and correctly. Glass, metal, paper products, and plastic bottles and containers go into the blue recycling bin. By disposing of recyclables correctly, students can help increase the recycling rate so that less paper and plastic end up in the landfill. The green food waste bin is for organic items that will biodegrade, like fruit, vegetables, grains, meat, dairy products, and more. Collecting food scraps instead of throwing them in the landfill gives them a second chance at providing nutrients to plants and animals. Anything that cannot be recycled or composted goes into the gray landfill bin.
By informing students how to make the most of what they have, using reusable items instead of single-use disposables when possible, and utilizing the recycling and food waste bins, they can significantly reduce how much landfill waste is produced at their school. This both keep our schools clean and benefits the environment. We can reduce 45% of emissions by reducing, reusing, and recycling!