Parkway member leads recycling effort,
earns national recognition

Parkway NEA member Bill Guinther is known as the “energy czar” in his school district. His formal title, however, is resource conservation manager, and his work has made the Parkway School District a national model of an environmentally responsible district. The district is the recipient of the 2005 National Recycling Coalition Award.

The suburban public school district in West St. Louis County involves 22,000 students and staff spread over 65 square miles. The district’s extensive recycling program includes the recovery of all of the traditional recyclables, along with ink jet cartridges, used cooking oil for biodiesel, e-scrap (computers, cell phones and other electronics), fluorescent lamps, ballasts, paint thinner, lead acid batteries, mercury, science classroom chemicals and other items.

Over the past school year, Parkway recycled more than 1,750 tons of recyclables, generating $30,000 in revenue. The district also recovered and recycled 15,000 fluorescent lamps, 430 lead acid batteries, and 350 PCB containing ballasts. The recycling program also includes partnerships with local tree trimmers through which Parkway receives wood chips for mulch.

“As like any other part of the country, St. Louis is struggling with the rising e-waste issues. Currently, St. Louis has a regional e-waste task force in place on which I have had the opportunity to participate,” Parkway NEA member Bill Guinther explains. “The task force has developed a template of criteria which e-scrap recyclers must meet in order to be considered viable vendors in this arena. Ten area vendors are accepting the challenge to meet the criteria as well as apply for funding grants to help develop the e-scrap market in St. Louis. We now have a reputable network of vendors with whom the greater St. Louis community can confidently recycle their e-scrap at a reasonable cost or no cost. These vendors can be found at www.ecyclestlouis.org.”

Guinther advises other districts to “start small and be successful small” if they are interested in starting a recycling program. Then grow the program.

“Our program is now in its 15th year,” he says. “We started with one commodity, got our act together around it and then evolved the program over the years. Commodity recycling is great, but school districts, particularly large school districts, need to be aware that there are laws and regulations governing how such institutions are to handle and dispose of universal and hazardous wastes. A program could get started by initiating their efforts in such an area in order to have a school district come into compliance. Once established, branching out into other universal and hazardous wastes as well as the commodity market, would be a natural next step.”

For more information, visit www.pkwy.k12.mo.us or contact Bill Guinther at (314) 415–8278 or bguinther@pkwy.k12.mo.us.

by Debra Angstead
MNEA communications director