The Brownsville Independent School District will hold an annual recycling rally at 9 a.m. Friday in the parking lot of the BISD administration building at 1900 Price Road to celebrate Earth Day.
This year’s theme is Invest in Our Planet, Micaela Escobar, director of Records Management and Recycling, said at Tuesday’s BISD Board of Trustees meeting.
BISD has partnered with the City of Brownsville Parks & Recreation Department, Gladys Porter Zoo, Healthy Communities of Brownsville and others to promote environmental awareness, she said.
In a presentation, Escobar said Earth Day is a perfect time to raise awareness around the environmental goals of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
She said BISD’s Curriculum Department implements environmentally appropriate and responsible practices for students conducting investigations in science at all grade levels, specifically in making informed choices in the conservation, disposal and recycling of materials. TEKS process standards are followed by grade level and subject.
In December 2020, Redfish Recycling placed 63 recycling containers throughout the district, which resulted in BISD recycling 400 tons of waste, according to the city landfill.
That saved 4,500 trees, 1,492,000 gallons of water, 334,000 kilowatt hours of energy and 3,339,000 yards of landfill space through commingled, or single-stream recycling, Escobar said.
She said BISD recycled 338 tons of materials in the 2020-2021 school year, 580 tons in 2021-2022 and 335 tons to date in the 2022-23 school year.
Through dual-stream, or source-separated recycling:
>> Cardboard and paper are recycled by the records management department.
>> Metal waste is recycled by the transportation department and the Career and Technical Education classes at Hanna and Veterans Memorial early college high schools.
>> Used printer cartridges are recycled by the Instructional Technology Department on behalf of all classes throughout the district.
Meanwhile, BISD in collaboration with City of Brownsville Parks & Recreation Department initiated a crayon recycling program for used, unwanted and broken crayons. Crayons will be melted into new shapes and given back to children throughout the city. In two months, the program has collected 200 pounds of crayons, she said.
During 2022-23, the city received a grant from One Tree Planted and Salesforce to plant 136 trees at seven schools. In addition, BISD applied for and received a grant to plant more trees in 2023-24, she said.
