As another school year comes to a close, staff and students are cleaning out their classrooms, lockers and offices—a chaotic process that typically results in bins of discarded and unwanted material. However, with proactive planning, most of these end-of-the-year materials can be diverted from the trash through donation, repurposing or recycling.

In the recent "Community Conversation" that the 绿色学校中心 held with school district sustainability staff, the group discussed the real challenges, strategies and resources for managing hard-to-recycle materials and coordinating classroom, closet and locker cleanouts.

Laurel Bates, from Clackamas County in Oregon, shared her tips on how to capture valuable materials during the rush to get out the door:

Put together a detailed plan for the cleanout effort.
Identify key items you want to collect and set out bins to collect each (don’t forget to set out some trash cans, since not everything can be recycled!).
Recruit staff and volunteers to collect and sort materials.
Coordinate with haulers to set up additional collection bins or pickups.
Consider having cleanout programs not just at the end of the year, but also for school moves.

Finding ways to recycle bulky materials can be a challenge. Some districts have created internal programs to support reducing and reusing these items. For example, San Francisco Unified Schools in California has a furniture exchange program. Santa Fe Public Schools in Arizona and Lincoln Public Schools in Nebraska have well-organized programs to successfully collect, organize, and redistribute or sell outdated items purchased with school funds. In an effort to reduce the purchase of materials in the first place, Philadelphia Public Schools in Pennsylvania is offering teachers a lending library of STEM items, such as science kits, light meters and stream tables.

The group also shared real challenges they’ve faced in the past:

Backlash for recycling outdated books when the media reported roll-off dumpsters full of them
The endless volume of binders
Finding funds to ship furniture or books to organizations that will reuse them
Navigating different school operational plans for cleanouts (some have students do it, others have staff do it)
Finding enough partners and volunteers to manage an organized cleanout program in all schools

For anyone looking to model the "three Rs" and improve their school's cleanout efforts, explore our compilation of school cleanout resources, including toolkits, websites, signage and program examples.

Access curriculum and waste audit resources to support recycling and reuse in your school.

View school cleanout resources

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