On May 17, the school board was scheduled to hear a presentation on the state of waste in the district from the Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority. A young intern, who did not look a day over 18, set up his laptop in front of the board and confidently spoke about the four waste audits he had conducted at San Ramon Valley High School – the school he graduated from last year.
“I wanted to find out what the school pays for trash,” he said later. “One of our ideas was to look at the financial reasons why the district should look to recycle cans and bottles.”
Everyone in the room soon figured out that Jeff Gustafson, 18, is not your average teenager. He has the environment on the brain 24/7. His waste audits showed the school board what was being thrown away at the high school and how money could be saved if the district standardized schools’ recycling programs and incorporated bottles and cans in the maintenance department’s regular pickup.
SRVUSD handles the collection and hauling of all its trash and recycling. The district has two trucks, with one picking up trash and the other recycling. The maintenance department handles recyclable paper goods, but bottle and can recycling is each school’s responsibility. Gustafson believes a lot of recyclable goods are falling through the cracks.
While Gustafson was a student at San Ramon Valley High and even after he graduated, he and fellow members of an organization called Student Activists for a Viable Environment, or SAVE, conducted four waste audits, with the help of the Waste Authority.
CCCSWA provided them with the necessary equipment such as goggles, gloves, aprons and a scale that weighs down to the nearest 100th kilogram. A waste audit entails collecting waste from the Dumpsters, separating the different kinds of waste, and weighing each category of waste.
“We want to help the schools recycle because it helps the city meet the state goal,” said Jenny Oorbeck, a waste prevention and recycling specialist at the Waste Authority. In 1989, the state passed AB939, which requires every jurisdiction in California to reduce waste by half of what was produced in 1990. CCCSWA conducts free waste audits for all schools and businesses in its service area.
Gustafson’s waste audits took place on four different Saturdays. He and other SAVE members collected a sample of the trash, about 2 cubic yards, from the six Dumpsters at the high school. It amounted to 1,500 pounds of trash.
The waste audits would usually take the entire day, said Gustafson.
The district is charged $35 per ton of waste and paid $5 per ton for recyclable material, according to Gustafson’s report. He showed that presently the district pays $43,175 to dump its waste and gets back $1,155 in recycling.
His waste audits showed that plastic/glass bottles and aluminum/tin cans made up 14 percent of the waste tonnage. If the district were to divert those bottles and cans and recycle 100 percent of its paper, it could save $14,878 and get back $2,035 more from recycling.
Gustafson also brought up the possibility of composting food waste. Food waste is heavy and makes up 24 percent of the waste tonnage, said Gustafson. If the district composted food waste along with recycling all paper, bottles and cans, it could save $22,882 in sanitation costs.
Some school board members complimented Gustafson on his work. Superintendent Robert Kessler remarked on how impressed he was with Gustafson’s presentation. School board president Joan Buchanan suggested giving the money saved by recycling back to the schools.
“I thought it was a great presentation,” Buchanan said in an interview after the board meeting. “We have some really remarkable kids in this district.”
The idea of expanding the recycling program is not without challenges. It would involve purchasing another truck for the cans and bottles, and probably hiring another staff member, said Craig Sesco, the school district’s supervisor of buildings and grounds. This could cost upwards of $100,000. Even with the high initial cost, Sesco thought recycling bottles and cans might eventually pay for itself.
“We would consider doing this. Recycling does help our costs. We want to save as much as possible. It helps our community and our costs,” said Sesco.
Separating out cans and bottles also means more work for the custodial staffs at schools. For those that are already short staffed, recycling is not a No. 1 priority.
Leslie Dumas, the environmental science teacher at San Ramon Valley High and faculty advisor to SAVE, is realistic about the challenges.
“Cans have to be emptied and washed out. How can you do that when the rugs need to be vacuumed?” said Dumas.
“We understand it’s a tax on their staff and that schools are dealing with other issues that are of a higher priority,” said Oorbeck.
All believe one of the greatest challenges to successfully expanding the recycling program is a change in student mindset.
“Getting high schools kids to put their trash in the trash is harder than you would think,” said Buchanan. “A large success will be making it convenient. If it’s not easy, we’re fighting an uphill battle.”
Dumas, who heads the paper recycling program at San Ramon Valley High, believes that it takes years for recycling programs to become successful. It took about three years for paper recycling to really become institutionalized at the school, she said.
But if there is anyone who can weather the challenges, it’s Jeff Gustafson.
“He’s years ahead of himself in terms of maturity and drive,” Dumas said. “He’s a doer, he makes things happen.”
“I have always been into the environment,” said Gustafson. “I do believe we need to start as a society to recognize what exactly we’re doing to the planet. Recycling is just an easy way to start.”
For now, Gustafson is recommending the school and the maintenance department consider overtaking bottle and can recycling at the schools.
“All recycling systems should be supported by the district. It should be more complete. It should be a standard program,” said Gustafson.
Gustafson is presently attending Diablo Valley College. He hopes to transfer to UC Santa Cruz and major in environmental studies.
As an intern at the Waste Authority, he does regular waste audits at area schools. He also volunteers for LifeGarden’s Iron Horse Corridor Enhancement Program and the local chapter of the Sierra Club. And he regularly maintains the native plant garden at his old high school.
Dumas said she could imagine him as the head of the Sierra Club or Environmental Protection Agency one day.
“He is far and away more driven than anyone I know,” she added.
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