For the past several years, students at Chávez have participated in the RISE (recycling is simply elementary) program. The students understand the process. With or without reminding, they know where to put their cardboard trays from hot lunch. They put half eaten fruit and vegetables in the compost bucket. And they recycle plastic and aluminum beverage containers.

At Chávez we have gone from 9 trash cans to 3. But we can still do more. The real challenge now is not in the recycling but in the reducing. And that means packing waste-free lunches. After all the recycling is sorted, what remains in the trash cans are the plastic baggies, the jello/pudding mini cups, the Capri suns, the half or uneaten sandwiches.

1. Use reusable lunchbox containers. In 2004, a RISE coordinator at another school counted 300 baggies in one day. Multiply that by 5 days, 36 weeks, 9 elementary schools and that is almost half a million baggies sent to the dump-just from Davis school age children. Reuse plastic containers from yogurt, hummus, sour cream containers. Or buy Tupperware and label it with your child's name.

2. Pack half a sandwich, half an apple (or whatever fruit), half as much of everything you think your child will eat. Most kids don't finish their food. We encourage them to take it home and talk to their parents about how much lunch to pack but most just toss it. Compostable food waste fills one five-gallon bucket a day (granted half of that is from hot lunch). Non compostable food waste fills two five gallon buckets a day.

3. Hot Lunch: The school district food service has been making an effort to find recyclable containers that meet state and local regulations for food safety. The aluminum tray is recyclable as well as some of the plastic containers. Food should be removed first (into the trash cans). Plastic containers marked with a 1 or 2 can be recycled.