The City of Mission Viejo’s efforts to help Capistrano Valley High School become more green have paid off with the school being touted for having the most dedicated and successful green program in the Capistrano Unified School District.
The City first partnered with the high school in 2007 to launch a recycling program that would benefit the school and environment. Using grant dollars, the City provided Capistrano Valley High School with recycling containers, liners, gloves and other supplies along with banners to promote recycling at the high school.
Since then, students and staff have made a commitment to the green cause, with the backbone of the program being in-class recycling. Every classroom has a blue basket for recyclable materials, including paper, cardboard and magazines. Beverage containers (plastic, glass and aluminum) are placed in blue and green containers throughout the main building.
School officials have used a number of tactics to make the program a success. They reduced the volume of unnecessary materials used across the campus. For instance, the cafeteria staff uses fewer cardboard trays during meal service, and staff is utilizing electronic communication and avoiding printing whenever possible to save paper supplies.
The student Green Club, which handles the beverage container program, sorts materials twice a week and has raised more than $2,000. With the beverage container program, roughly 3,000 pounds of materials have been kept from the landfills, 42,000 individual containers have been recycled, saving the equivalent of 3,068 trees.
The program is working, officials say, as students and staff have already filled a storage container with newspapers – more than 10 tons of materials.
City officials are elated with Capistrano Valley High School’s progress and commitment to recycling. Partnering with the high school is a “win-win” for the City, school and environment.
