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Port Washington School District Joins North Hempstead’s Town-wide Recycling Initiative

For Immediate Release                                                                   Contact: Collin Nash or Sid Nathan
October 31, 2008                                                                                                        (516) 869 7794

Port Washington School District Joins North Hempstead’s Town-wide Recycling Initiative

Port Washington, NYScores of students from Port Washington’s Paul D. Schreiber High School took time out between classes last week to help launch another segment of North Hempstead’s town-wide recycling effort.

The more then seventy students joined with North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman, and a host of other officials and environmentalists including Councilman Fred Pollack, Port Washington Schools Superintendant Dr. Geoff Gordon, school board members and representatives from Residents for a More Beautiful Port Washington and the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, to mark the program’s debut in their district.

With hundreds of blue recycling containers stacked on the edge of Schreiber’s football field as a backdrop, the students—each with a bin by their side—symbolically beckoned their peers across North Hempstead to jump on North Hempstead’s go green bandwagon. Among other things, the movement calls for the town to provide every classroom in Port Washington as well as other North Hempstead district with a recycling bin. The recyclables will then be picked up by a town carter and taken to the town’s transfer station.

“Working together, we will make recycling in North Hempstead more successful than it ever has been and a model for communities everywhere,” Kaiman told the group.

Following through on his promise in his the 2008 State of the Town address in January of this year to make recycling “a top priority,” Kaiman took another step forward in his mission to put recycling containers in every building of the town’s 11 school districts. The sweeping recycling program also will place recycling bins—including solar-compacting versions—in parks, libraries and a number of designated areas throughout the town.

The recycling program is just one among a number of green initiatives the town has embarked on since Kaiman took office almost five years ago.

So far, four other school districts, Sewanhaka, Manhasset, Great Neck and Herricks, are now participating in the town program with Westbury, Carle Place, and East Williston scheduled to begin the program within the next few weeks.

In addition to annual efforts such as Earth Day, the EcoFestival, Clean Sweep, the Green Team Clean-up operation and Keep it Clean, the town has purchased hybrid cars and buses, incorporated green building technology in its municipal construction projects and re-seeded the bays and waterways with shell fish.

To help make the recycling program work, Kaiman said, he has “committed” to developing a plan to manage the collection of all the recyclables generated ensuring that what is collected is actually recycled and thereby saving taxpayers money while protecting the environment at the same time.

To help drum up support and interest in the program among the youth, Kaiman has invited student interns from each district to work in Town Hall as part of a committee to coordinate the effort.

Dr. Geoffrey Gordon, Superintendent of the Port Washington School District applauded the program and Supervisor Kaiman’s foresight for implementing it.

“Under the progressive leadership of Supervisor Jon Kaiman, we will now fully embrace recycling in every classroom,” Gordon said. “The benefits of the recycling program are not only immediate but also provide a long-range framework of protecting our environment and planet.”

(L to R) Councilman Fred Pollack, Supervisor Jon Kaiman, Dr. Eric Gordon, Superintendent of Port Washington School District along with other administrators, stand with students celebrating the new recycling outreach initiative.

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