In Fall 2008, a group of parents formed the "Green Team" to help Third Street "reduce, reuse, recycle and educate" - and in doing so help preserve the environment of our community and planet.

The "Green Team" started with baby steps. First, we chose a partner to pick up the cans and bottles from our "Green Tuesday" drives.  This group is a nonprofit that provides at-risk young adults with job skills, education and work experience.  They not only pick up our recyclables, but even pay us for them! By the end of the 2007/2008 school year we had collected over two tons of cans and bottles during our "Green Tuesday" drives!

Next, we focused on collecting ink and laser jet cartridges.  (For each cartridge we collect, two quarts of oil are kept out of the landfills.) Certain cartridges even earn money for our school!  Thanks to some very dedicated parents who diligently collected cartridges from their workplaces we collected over 1,000 cartridges last year!  

Our next step was to tackle paper waste.  We placed bins in every classroom and each Tuesday morning they are emptied into a huge recycling bin in the parking lot!  The bigger kids have been paired up with the smaller kids to haul the bins to the back gate.  It's adorable to see the faces of these good citizens as they learn about how they are saving trees by recycling their paper! Kids are also recycling their (clean) cardboard lunch trays in the cafeteria saving hundreds of trays each day from the landfill.  

There is still lots to be done but we have been having a great time with what we've accomplished so far.  

Next baby steps include collecting used cell phones, composting, reducing lunch waste, getting school communications online instead of on paper and so much more!

How little or how much we can accomplish is up to all of us - so join the "Green Team" and let's (in the words of Dr. Oh) become a campus that is  "Clean, Green and Serene"!

You can support the Green Team's goals and help raise money for Friends of Third by making an environmentally friendly product purchase from www.Greenraising.com.

If you choose "Friends of Third - CA" at the top of the page, FOT will receive 25% of your purchase for our school!

For more information, to submit suggestions, or to volunteer, please contact Friends of Third at friendsinfo@friendsofthird.org