Quaker Oats partners with Hoover Elementary in going green

On Friday, December 2

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at 1:15pm, Quaker Oats and Hoover Elementary will be celebrating with a school wide assembly as the school kicks off a complete co-mingled recycling program. Leading the school district in what will be implemented across the entire Cedar Rapids Community School District, Hoover Elementary will be paving the way for sister schools by working through potential roadblocks and helping to prepare other schools for the recycling journey with the help of community partner Quaker Oats.  To demonstrate Quaker's commitment to landfill reduction and recycling, the company is funding all of the recycling receptacles and signage for Hoover Elementary.

As part of Quaker Oat's goal to reduce landfill waste in the community, Kaitlin Van Roekel, Resource Sustainability Champion at Quaker Oats, lead an Adopt-A-School program where she educated and trained students and staff at Hoover Elementary about recycling. While emphasizing the large potential landfill reduction, Van Roekel also demonstrated how the school district could save money if they embraced a co-mingled recycling program. Hoover, along with most schools in the district have strictly been recycling cardboard and paper with all other items going to the landfill. Working closely with Brian Krob, Principal of Hoover Elementary and Jason Lee of City Carton Recycling, Quaker Oats held educational assemblies and waste audits to fully prepare students and staff for an entire co-mingled recycling program.

Quaker Oats is committed to helping and adopting additional schools in the district to achieve comingled recycling by continuing to educate and train students and staff.  With the first school on its way, the other schools will be able to follow in Hoover's footsteps.  In addition, grants have become available through Iowa Waste Exchange to assist schools with funding to help offset the costs for implementing recycling programs.