Schools & Students
One in every five people who live in the US, about 55 million people, spend their days in k-12 schools. CSWD believes that healthy school campuses in Vermont deserve the best options in waste management. Our programs offer a variety of free resources to help your school become a model of sustainability.
Exploring resource recovery and waste management systems is a natural fit for teachers interested in service learning projects at school and in the community. Student activities focus on waste reduction, systems learning, the benefits of creative reuse, recycling, composting, and other healthy habits and lifestyle choices. CSWD presentations can be tailored to any age group and include place-based educational materials.
Classroom Tools
Our Classroom Tools page is packed full of in-class units, visual learning materials, hands-on activities, and creative ways to teach K-12 students about waste management. Here you will find CSWD Learning Templates, recommended curriculum resources, and suggested media supplements.
Take Action
Sometimes a school’s recycling and waste management infrastructure needs to improve to meet the increasing desire of the greater community to make recycling and composting systems more effective and visible. Collaboration and communication are critical to making this possible. Maintenance and food service staff, PTOs, administrators, teachers, environmental clubs, nurses, and food education and energy committees work together to create a top-notch, efficient systems for resource recovery and waste prevention.
Our Take Action page offers free how-to-compost guides, self-rated sustainability assessments, and recycling bins and signage to engage and inspire institutional change.
Tours of CSWD Facilities
Tours of the Materials Recovery Facility are offered from April through November only. Please note that the minimum age for children allowed on MRF tours is now 10 years old. Please visit the MRF page for more tour details, and for links to videos of the MRF you can show in your classroom over the internet.
Tours of the Intervale Compost Products facility are suspended until the new facility opens on Redmond Road in Williston this summer. Check back here or sign up for the monthly CSWD Newsflash email newsletter for the latest info on the compost facility relocation.
For other facility tours, please send us an email by choosing the “Tour Request” drop-down option on the contact us form for details and scheduling.
Creative ReUse Showcase
The CSWD Creative ReUse Showcase is an art exercise and competition open to any Chittenden County high school student. CSWD and Frog Hollow – Vermont State Craft Gallery in Burlington have teamed up to sponsor the showcase since 1996 as a way to promote recycling and waste reduction in the Chittenden County community. Visit the Creative ReUse Showcase page for more details on past and present competitions.
