Reducing our garbage

We collected the wrappers from our snacks and lunches to see how much garbage we produce. First we collected wrappers from two recesses, then we collected wrappers from one day's worth of snacks and lunches, and in the end we collected a week's worth of wrappers.  We were really surprised by how much garbage we made. I think we were so surprised because 10 of our students bring in litterless lunches everyday. The students really, really wanted to help reduce the garbage and quickly came up with a plan.  There was a great discussion about which wrappers they wanted to eliminate.  They voted to eliminate Kool-Aid jammers, yogurt tubes, cheese and cracker packaging, and fruit by the foot.  They made their decisions based on the packaging of each item, which could not be recycled.