Life starts small. So do great ideas. Consistent actions can add up to a world of difference. Especially when those acts involve the earth, air, water – the finite resources on the planet.

Doesn't it make sense to teach effective re-use of materials at a very young age and to also implement the practice of recycling at every possible level? Here's to the educators and leaders who connect the endless cycle of life to students.

The recently launched RecycleCT Foundation awarded grants totaling more than $21,000 to 12 Connecticut schools that have projects focused on recycling, waste reduction, reuse, or composting – and to the Connecticut Forest & Park Association (CFPA) for an initiative to strengthen environmental education centered on waste reduction.

RecycleCT was created through Public Act 14-94 (CT CGS Sec. 22a-228a), to raise public awareness and participation in recycling. The law also outlines the goals, formation of a council, membership structure and responsibilities of the council. The foundation will lead the way in implementing a key goal of the legislation: increasing the recycling diversion rate from the current level of about 25-30 percent to 60 percent by 2024. DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee serves as chairman of the board of directors of RecycleCT.

The RecycleCT Foundation is promoting the importance of recycling and encouraging people, government entities, schools, businesses, and organizations to adopt recycling as part of their everyday lives or operations. As one of its first efforts, the foundation launched a program of small grants for schools.

In this first round of grants to schools, nine of the recipient schools are part of the state’s GreenLeaf program, a partnership of state agencies and organizations, and environmental and educational groups who provide resources and guidance for schools to comply with federal and state laws and adopt voluntary programs that make their schools ‘greener’. This is a free statewide initiative open to any public or private schools in the state.

Schools receiving grant awards from the RecycleCT Foundation are:

Commodore Macdonough Elementary, Middletown – $600; waste reduction, reuse. Parkway Elementary, Greenwich – $1,408; composting, worm composting. Greenwich Academy, K-12, Greenwich – $1,000; composting. Application and project, organized by Charlotte Winkler, a senior at the school. Academy of Engineering & Green Technology High School, Hartford – $1,500; recycling. St. Gabriel School, K-8, Windsor – $1,450; recycling, composting. Common Ground High School, New Haven – $1,500; composting. CT River Academy, High School, East Hartford – $1,450; recycling, composting. Elm City Montessori School, preK-1, New Haven – $1,500; recycling, composting. Manchester Public Schools, K-12, Manchester – $1,500; composting. Brien McMahon High School, Norwalk – $1,500; recycling. Trailblazers Academy, Middle School, Stamford – $1,500; recycling. Hamden High School, Hamden – $1,480, composting.

The CFPA grant for $5,000 is focused on efforts to “train the trainers,” to ensure that there is a core group of educators prepared to provide outreach and education to various audiences on sustainable materials management.

“The 12 schools receiving grant funds stood out for their efforts to develop programs that integrated education with waste reduction and reuse or recovery of materials through composting and recycling,” said DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee. “We are also very pleased to provide funding to one of our long-time partners, CFPA, for a new environmental education program that will improve our ability to reach people with important lessons on the value of recycling and resource conservation.”

Appointed Members of RecycleCT Advisory Council: Ron Goldstein, esquire. Members of RecycleCT Board of Directors: Robert J. Klee commissioner; CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection; Brian Paganini, vice president and managing director, Quantum Biopower; Tim Sullivan, Department of Economic and Community Development; Thomas DeVivo, vice president, Willimantic Waste Paper Co.; Frank M. Antonacci, Murphy Road Recycling.

In a related effort, the DEEP as an agency is working to establish a web-based intercollegiate reuse network that will enable Connecticut colleges and universities to exchange usable items among each other instead of throwing them away. This network will be a password protected area of the Re-use Marketplace. For information on how to get involved to help pilot the system, contact Chris Nelson at (860) 424-3454.

As earthworms love compost heaps and turn what some consider garbage into rich soil, for those interested in cultivating the wiggly partners, there is an upcoming NCSU Vermiculture Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. Topics for the August gathering include all sorts of information about earthworms; the latest research on the effects of vermicompost; using extracts for plant growth and disease suppression; workshops and more. This is the only conference about earthworm farming and mid-to-large-scale vermicomposting held in North America. Each two-day conference is attended by more than 130 people from all over the U.S. and the world, including Thailand, Australia, India, Guatemala, Greece, Switzerland, Argentina, Norway, Nigeria, Hong Kong, Israel, Turkey, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada. For details, visit this link to the August 2016 event website.