Waste tracking
Waste tracking allows us to quantify environmental impacts and conserve school budgets.
Track Waste to Measure Success
Tracking your facilities' waste output allows your school and district to:
Measure greenhouse gas emissions from waste and document reductions
Identify opportunities to save on waste hauling service
Document compliance with state law and district policy
Celebrate program success
Useful Resources
Success Story - Lydiksen Elementary School
By tracking their waste output over time, Lydiksen Elementary school was able to identify that they had excess hauling service for their needs.
The school then reduced their service and began saving more than $300/ month.
GGI Custom Waste Tracking App
The GGI offers an app that facilitates the process of collecting and analyzing your facilities' waste data across streams. This service is available to our priority districts upon request.
Contact the Go Green Initiative to discuss.
Waste tracking app demo.mp4How the GGI App Works
Staff member or supervised students can use the GGI's app to record your school's regular waste output for mixed recycling, compost, carboard recycling, and garbage.
The app provides a pre-populated reminded customized to your school's hauling schedule and aggregates data to measure monthly totals for the volume, number of pickups, and cost for each waste stream.
Other Tools for Tracking Waste
Waste tracking can be done in a variety of high-tech or low-tech ways.
School staff or supervised students can track waste by taking a look in their school's dumpster or rolling carts before they're emptied by the trash trucks and recording how full they are in a simple google sheet or on a piece of paper.
Available as google sheet. Go to "File" -> "Make a copy" to use.
faq (cLICK TO EXPAND)
How do we get started with the GGI's waste tracking app?
This tool is currently available at request to GGI priority districts. Please contact the Go Green Initiative for inquiry.
Can my school have more than one account on the waste tracking app?
Yes, there's no limit on the number of accounts per school. Any staff member or supervised student can create an account and link your school. This is a great way to collaborate and allow many team members to participate in tracking.
Who should be tracking waste?
Any member of your Green Team can track waste. This includes administrators, teachers, custodians, and supervised students. Each school designates the tasks differently. At some schools, one administrator or custodian collects all the data. At other schools, many members of the team and school community collaborate. Each member could be designated a day of the week to check the bins. Students can get involved as well. A class or student club may take responsibility for checking the recycling bins on the appropriate day, for example.