Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Austin residents have heard this for years, but how does this apply to the schools in the Austin area? Austin is working towards becoming a zero waste city by 2040, how would this affect the school’s recycling policies?

Clayton Elementary no longer allows students to throw their lunch trash away; they have to place it back in their lunch boxes and bring it home to be disposed of. Should Bowie take on a policy like this and how beneficial would it be to enact a policy similar to this? Currently the school recycles everything that they can. Since Bowie does not have a compost system items such as pizza boxes and used paper towels are thrown in with the regular garbage.

“We do not have a compost bin for food items and pizza boxes or anything else that food was directly placed in. This is something the school district does at the elementary schools and may sometime in the future roll out at the high school level.” said Theresa Bachmann, the head custodian here at Bowie.

With the issue of global warming being such a largely discussed topic these days, not only in the news but also in Austin, one wonders how much good comes from just recycling alone and what are some measures that can be taken to improve policies that are already in place.

“AISD is working toward a “Zero Waste” policy. This is not completely in effect yet but should be within a few years. Less stuff going into the landfills means fewer landfills over time. Less stuff is decomposing under ground to potentially poison our water and land. “ said  Bachmann.

Many of Bowies students do not know that there are even rules to follow when it comes to  recycling or were unaware that Bowie recycled.

“I was not aware that Bowie had a recycling policy in place, I always just throw out what I do at home which I assume is the same thing  that is in place at school.” said  junior Brianna Garcia

Some teachers are not even aware of the recycling systems in place.

“I actually had no idea that we even had a recycling program, no one ever told me about that,” physics teacher Cara Willig said. “ have a recycling box, and it keeps getting emptied so I assume that it is being recycled.”

      When recycling here at Bowie there are certain places and things that can be recycled, Bowie follows the same recycling schedule as the reset of the Austin area, the only difference is that Bowies recycling is in bulk.

“We recycle almost everything here at Bowie. We have the blue recycle bins in some classrooms and around the campus for cans, bottles, and any paper items. This is picked up  from the recycle bins and put in the recycle dumpsters two or more times a week as the bins fill up.”said Bachmann.

As AISD is working towards becoming zero waste, it is important to understand exactly what that entails.

“I would assume that zero waste means that the person/place produces no waste meaning that they send nothing to the landfills in the surrounding area.” said Garcia.

If Bowie were to create a compost system there would be many more opportunities for the Bowie community to not only recycle but creating a compost would allow the student council to use it in their gardens or  to use in the greenbelts, there could be many benefits.

“We do not recycle any paper towels or restroom trash. It goes to the trash dumpster. Later if the school chooses to compost, used paper towel would be included in the compost dumpster for pick-up later.” said Bachmann

As Bowie continues to explore options regarding recycling students and staff will  continue to recycle as many items as possible.

“It is a work in progress. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is a life lesson we should all learn early.” said Bachmann.