To the editor:

Bristol Recycles has exciting news to report regarding a significant program about to be launched in the Bristol-Warren Regional School District. With the outstanding support of Melinda Thies, Superintendent of Schools; Pauline Silva, Director of Administration and Finance; George Simmons, Director of Facilities; all the individual school principals and their “Green Team” parents/leaders, a revitalized “Recycling Program” will be rolled out on Monday, Feb. 24, in all schools in the district.

The cornerstone of this program focuses on the school cafeterias where significant recyclables will now be captured through the use of newly constructed “Recycling Stations” placed in each of the six schools in the District. These “stations” will enable each school’s custodial staff to capture liquid remnants from milk, water, juice containers before these cartons (which are valuable recyclables) are deposited as trash for disposal. Though containers should be rinsed whenever possible, at a minimum they must be emptied and these “stations” will now make that possible. Consider the following facts: There are 3,430 students enrolled in the District’s schools; if each drinks milk, water, juice, etc., each day, we will be capturing more than 15,000 cartons/bottles/boxes each week or more than 540,000 during the course of a 180 day school year. That on its own is very significant, but there’s more!

Thanks to the great support of Town Administrator Tony Teixeira, Director of Public Works Jim Galuska and the Bristol Town Council, Bristol will begin to collect all recyclables from the Bristol schools during the week of Feb. 24. Prior to this date, school recyclables have been collected as trash by an independent vendor and Bristol has not received credit for them. With this capture and subsequent deposit at RI Resource Recovery, Bristol will now receive the significant benefit of these recyclables, which can increase both our annual profit-share from RIRRC and our recycling rate (currently 19 percent).

There are many additional Bristol organizations and individuals who have invested their time, talent and treasure to the development and implementation of this program and deserve our thanks and appreciation. Proof, once again, that by working together we can accomplish great things. Bravo!

E. Keith Maloney

60 Van Wickle Lane

Town Councilor Timothy Sweeney

82 Church Street