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Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) received the generous donation of 25,000 standardized recycling and landfill labels for our recycling bins from the Bank of America and Recycle Across America. The standardized labels were distributed to the 184 district schools prior to the start of the 2015-2016 school year and placed on their respective containers by the OCPS custodial team. A set of 20 schools were chosen to audit before and after the placement of the labels. Additionally, our waste collection vendor, Waste Management, weighed each of the 20 schools dumpsters for a three month period to monitor the amount of material placed in trash or recycling dumpsters.

Data collected during this audit revealed an increase from an average of 2.55 pounds per student to an average 4.81 pounds per student. The total pounds reported by the vendor also revealed an increase of over 26,000 total pounds recycled, which would extrapolate to approximately 239,200 total pounds diverted from the landfill. It is evident that the standardized labels have been instrumental in increasing district recycling and saving money by diverting materials from landfill-bound garbage bins. Based on the results of school staff interviews, the labels are providing a consistent message to prevent confusion on what goes into a recycling container versus a garbage bin.