Pleasanton USD Green Teams tackle greenhouse gas emissions!

We’re celebrating spectacular sorting in our innovation district!

The Valley View Green Team poses at lunchtime.

Pleasanton USD Green Teams are back on campus and reducing their schools’ methane emissions!

We visited Hearst, Mohr, and Valley View elementary schools to hear their unique recipes for contamination-free recycling and compost. All three sites make use of bin monitors to minimize waste contamination and maximize student leadership. Bin monitors take a shift during lunchtime to help fellow students get their waste into the correct bins. 

At Hearst, bin monitoring is a rite of passage!

More than 130 Hearst 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders volunteer every year and younger students look forward to the opportunity to participate. With so many volunteers, each bin monitor only needs to provide their service a few days of the year, keeping the experience novel, fun, and an institution of school culture.

Hearst’s bins are organized in identical rows for efficient sorting. Bin monitors collect flyaway pieces of trash and remove bin contaminants with grabbers.

Hearst also prepares all students to sort efficiently with a Green Team-produced sorting video shown at the beginning of each school year. Younger students who are new to using the 3-bin system are visited by the Green Team at lunch to review what goes where. The school’s 100% contamination-free compost bins speak for themselves!

Hearst’s Green Team discusses their bin monitoring process with the District Green Team.

Valley View has it down to a science!

Every day at the end of lunch, Valley View student bin monitors grab a microphone and announce the correct bin for each lunch item on the tray of the day. Students who have pre-sorted their trays are dismissed to the bins where monitors are ready with grabbers to correct any sorting mistakes.

Students announce the right bin for each item on today’s tray.

A bin monitor removes an improperly sorted milk carton from a compost bin.

Bin monitors help fellow students stack their compostable trays for easy pickup by the custodian.

It’s a Green Team effort over at Mohr!

Mohr’s Green Team has designed a smart bin setup and eye-level sorting signage that can’t be missed. Student, staff, and parent volunteer bin monitors wear lanyards and green smocks that make them easy to identify for help. 

Mohr’s Green Team poses with their signs.

Knowledgeable student bin monitors are happy to help!

It takes a village to make our schools sustainable!

Returning to the classroom from remote learning, these Pleasanton USD schools and more are going above and beyond to take action on greenhouse gas emissions. THANK YOU to all students, teachers, custodians, lunch monitors, administrators, and parent volunteers who make school sustainability a daily practice and priority!