"Litterless lunch" recycling may help schools cut costs

June 27—Recycling everything from plastic bottles and bags to pourable liquids and compostable food scraps, students at Ridgefield Pulbic Schools, in Conn., cafeterias have been learning to dramatically reduce waste this year.

In the next school year, that could end up saving the school system, which spends more than $100,000 a year on garbage hauling. Veterans Park and Scotts Ridge were the two schools where the “litterless lunch” program was most fully put into effect.

In its first full week of total recycling in late May, Veterans Park found that 132 pounds of cafeteria trash could be reduced to just 15 pounds to go in the Dumpster, according to Amanda Cordano of the Green Village Initiative, which pushed for and helped organize the program.