Find Your Local Dairy Council®

Please select your state:

States: AK AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI IA ID IL IN KS KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NC ND NE NH NJ NM NV NY OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VA VT WA WI WV WY

Why recycle plastic milk and beverage bottles?

Conserves resources: The plastic resins used to make bottles are derived from petroleum and natural gas-fossil fuels that are in great demand. Saves energy: Recycling saves 50% of the energy needed to make products from new resin.

Helps the environment: Plastic bottle recycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions by substituting recycled resin for new resin. Plus bottles are bulky - each bottle recycled saves landfill space.

Saves schools money on disposal costs: Throwing away bottles costs money; schools pay for trash disposal by the cubic yard. Recycling bottles may reduce trash volume by ten percent or more.

Creates the volume needed to have a viable recycling program: Plastic milk bottles can easily be recycled and can be the one item that makes enough "critical mass" to be worthwhile for a recycling company to work with your district for no or very low cost.

Teaches children social responsibility: Reinforces learning to respect and take care of the environment.

How can I be a recycler?

• Discuss possibilities with school administration and custodial staff.
• Find a recycling company
  • Research if any recycling is now being done at the school.
    • If so, talk to the recycling company collecting the materials about expanding the program to include beverage bottles, cans and foodservice containers.
      • Single stream recyclers can collect all these materials in one bin.
    • The recycling company should be willing to work with you to set up a program.
  • Discuss recycling possibilities with the district's trash hauling company. Many companies have a recycling division.
  • Call your county recycling coordinator. This department can be found online or in the phone book. They should be able to help you with information, contacts and possible grant monies available.
• If more than one company is willing to collect the material, send out a bid to assure the best service and price. If enough material is collected there should be no charge for pickup.
• Use the following information from National Dairy Council's School Recycling Pilot Test to guide your efforts.
  • On average 7.71 lbs/student of recycled material will be collected over a school year. This will help estimate the amount of material your school/district will be collecting, which is important information for a recycling company.
  • When students are educated and trained on how to recycle, the material collected is relatively clean.
    • To keep the material relatively clean, some effort should be made to empty residual liquids from the bottles.
      • The first emphasis should be on getting kids to consume all the milk - DRINK IT THEN SINK IT.
      • Other suggestions are: kids, staff, aides emptying liquid into a container before putting the container in the bin; or when trays are returned, staff pulling containers that are not empty and disposing of liquid at a later time. No rinsing is needed.
    • Elementary students were the most receptive to training. You may want to start with elementary schools to establish recycling behavior that will stay with them through middle and high school.
  • Plastic bags (2 mil bags) containing the bottles were double knotted by the custodial staff before emptying into the outside recycling bin/totter provided by the recycling company.
    • This prevented any leaks or odors.

How to get the most from recycling

• Discuss with school administration and recycling company what other materials can be recycled. The more material recycled the better customer you become for the recycling company which can translate into financial benefits for the district.
• Renegotiate the trash hauling contract. There will be less garbage to be picked up and that should reflect on the cost.
• Plastic milk bottles can easily be recycled and can be the one item that makes enough "critical mass" to be worthwhile for a recycling company to work with your district for no cost or very low cost.
  • Paper milk cartons are not easily recycled since they are a coated paper fiber and very few recycling plants can handle this type material.
  • Paper milk cartons going into a landfill do not decompose because ideal composting conditions do not exist. This is true for most materials in landfills.
• Evaluate program on an on-going basis.
  • Are all materials being recycled?
  • Is there more education/promotion needed to reinforce message to students, staff and facility?
  • Are you communicating with the recycling company on how to make the program even more successful?
    • Some companies have compactors available for lease or purchase which would make the material more valuable.
• Be proud of helping the environment and the school district.
  • Let the local media, parents and community know about your efforts.
  • Share information about your program to other districts in your community and your state School Nutrition Association.

For more information, contact your local Dairy Council.