When Kathy Glover visited two St. Paul elementary schools for some volunteer work last spring, she was stunned by the amount of waste generated by the school district’s free breakfast program.

Students grabbed plastic utensils and single-use plastics containing cereal, juice, yogurt and breakfast bars, then carried them to classrooms and cafeteria tables in disposable plastic bags.

Containers for organics and recycling were absent, so the trash piled up in garbage bins.

“Actions are so important in teaching children, and our messages about the environment and personal empowerment need to not be at odds with how we conduct ourselves in our schools,” Glover said.

“Mountains of garbage being generated by schools is teaching them a lot.”

St. Paul Public Schools says it produced almost 6,000 tons of waste last year. Just over half went to landfills.

The Breakfast to Go program, which uses packaged foods that students can take to their desks, generated about 600 tons of waste alone.

In a presentation Tuesday to the school board, district leaders acknowledged it’s a problem.

They’re working with a New Hope consultant to buy products that use less material and reduce what gets thrown away in schools.

They soon will test reusable tote bags and are looking to buy recyclable juice and fruit cups, as well as reusable pallets, crates and baskets used in shipping food to the schools. And they have plans to start separating trash from recyclables and organic materials during breakfast.

The board report covered a variety of sustainability efforts the district has undertaken in recent years, with limited success.

The district made a modest decrease in energy use over the past decade but failed to meet a 10-year, 10 percent energy-reduction goal set in 2009.

The district uses less energy than the average cold-weather district, but “we need to do more,” energy coordinator Angela Vreeland said.

They’re working with Xcel Energy to make further reductions with the help of students and staff.

Major renovations across the district are helping to reduce energy usage, too, facilities director Tom Parent said. Related Articles St. Paul district to wait on reopening schools, citing lack of staff

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Board members on Tuesday pressed facilities department staff to do more with renewable energy. Staff said, however, that they can make a greater impact by replacing lights and motors and changing people’s behaviors to reduce energy use.

Anyway, only three of the district’s 73 buildings make sense for solar technology, Parent said, and two already use it — Battle Creek Elementary, for electricity, and Creative Arts Secondary, to heat water. The rest have roofs that are too old or can’t handle the additional weight, he said.

However, an upcoming school project likely will use geothermal energy to heat and cool the building.