Local Students Participate in Locker Leftovers and Give Unwanted School Supplies a New Home

Fairview High School Students participating in Locker Leftovers in 2012

Ah, the last days of school. With an urgency to wrap things up and start the summer, it’s no wonder students casually trash thousands of unwanted, partly or completely unused schools supplies. But not in Boulder County!

Thanks to Locker Leftovers, an Eco-Cycle schools program since 2002, supplies like binders, pencils, books, paper, notebooks, and even clothes are collected at 10 different local schools at the end of each year and redistributed back to students, teachers, and local charities. Whatever can’t be reused is recycled.

>> Check out our Facebook photo album of Locker Leftovers at Fairview High School

With help from enthusiastic students, teachers and staff, our Eco-Cycle educators visit local schools at the end of each school year and set up reuse bins for a wide variety of materials. Students and teachers then get “first dibs” on the supplies, and whatever’s left is given to area charities.

This year, all leftover supplies are going to public schools in the northeastern New Mexico communities of Springer, Raton, Cimarron, and Las Vegas, where Eco-Cycle staff learned there is a large need.

Eight Boulder Valley Schools participated this year: New Vista High, Fairview High (2 events, one for seniors, one for 9-11th), Centennial Middle, Casey Middle, Manhattan Middle, Southern Hills Middle, Summit Middle, and Eldorado K-8. About 6,500 students participate each year.

Local elementary schools that are Green Star Schools with Eco-Cycle also participate in a similar program called Classroom Cleanouts. Right now, we work with Eisenhower, Mesa, and Bear Creek schools for this project, but we hope to expand it to include more Green Star Schools next year, both in BVSD and SVVSD.

Help us expand this program by making a donation >>

Organizations we’ve donated supplies to in the past include Boulder Homeless Shelter, Boulder County Head Start, Goodwill, Family Literacy Program, Acorn School, Boulder County Safehouse, Wild Plum Center for Young Children and Families, Children’s House Preschool, Boulder Prep High School, Think Humanity, Educate, Crayons to Calculators, Allied Youth Services and the BVSD Walk to School Day.

A huge thank you goes to the City of Boulder for funding Locker Leftovers in the middle and high schools listed above, and a big thank you to the Town of Superior for funding the program at Superior’s Eldorado K-8.

Help our Locker Leftovers and Classroom Cleanout programs expand!

We have many more schools interested in participating in these great reuse programs, but our funding is limited.

Make a donation to Eco-Cycle today and help us expand this far-reaching Zero Waste program!