Thank you to everyone who supported our first PTA event with the water bottle ban in effect. And congratulations! We made it through the evening without the assistance of crinkly plastic bottles!

The PTA sold about 60 of the colorful cups, some with lemon slices, and served up more than 6 gallons of cool New York City water at the 2nd Annual Roots & Community night. That means that at least 60 single-serve water bottles were diverted from the waste stream, too.The big success, however, was what we didn’t have: trash! Thanks to our student volunteer recycling monitors and collectors, and deliberate attempts to generate less waste, we bagged over 5 bags of recyclables–that’s a lot of plastic and metal that WON’T pollute the planet. Special thanks to the Executive Board of the PTA for voting to switch from bottled to tap water. In one night, we made a seriously positive impact. We

• reduced greenhouse gas emissions
• reduced water consumption (it takes 3 liters of water to make 1 liter of bottled water),
• and reduced waste generation.

Cheers to this new green initiative!