MAKING A MUSEUM: Materializing Regimes of Value with the NYC Department of Sanitation

I work at a Montessori school on the Upper West Side on Central Park West. The school cares for children from the ages of 3 months to 6 years, with operation hours of 8 AM to 6PM. This is a long day with many transitions. Not all children stay till 6pm and most are dismissed at 3:30pm. A typical schedule for my toddler classrooms is

8:00am – 10:00am Work Cycle (Independent)
10:00am – 10:30am Snack Time / Diaper Change
10:30am – 11:00am Circle Time (Group)
11:00am – 11:40am Walk in the Park / Playground
11:40am – 12:00pm Gym
12:00pm – 12:15pm Diaper Change
12:15pm – 1:00pm Lunch
1:00pm – 3:00pm Nap
3:00pm – 3:10pm Diaper Change
3:10pm – 3:30pm Snack Time
3:30pm – 4:30pm Work Cycle
4:30pm – 5:00pm Circle Time
5:00pm – 5:10pm Diaper Change
5:10pm – 6:00pm Gym

Now I will break down the main parts of our day into the trash produced. During work cycle we use many, many tissues. The children have the responsibility of wiping their own nose. Most of the children have runny noses year round and all it takes is a few seconds for an entire box worth of tissues to be in the trashcan. Our children are also responsible for any spills they make in the classroom as well as washing their hands in the likely event that they get dirty. This is where the napkins become a part of our daily trash. Children use the paper napkin to clean messes and dry hands throughout the day. 10:00am is the first diaper change. At this time the teacher uses a pair of disposable gloves, disposable baby wipes and a disposable diapers. I have never come in contact with a cloth diaper at the school and have not heard of any of our families using the re-usable diapers. Rathje has a section of his book Rubbish! dedicated to issues surrounding the disposable diaper and the building myths of their impact on the environment. Most diapers are name brand, while a minority are “eco-friendly” diapers that contain no bleach and have never been chemically treated. In one incident, a child was upset because all the other children had colorful designs of their diapers while his was plain beige. Mass marketing and pier pressure become issues at the age of two. After learning more about landfills and biodegradability, I would buy the diapers that had the least amount of packaging. Disposable plastic gloves are a personal and sanitary necessity. Schools are often cest pools for germs. Wearing the gloves while changing diapers, taking out the trash and doing the dishes gives me a personal sense of cleanliness, although I think we are exposed to most germ just by being close to the children.

During snack time, each child receives the same amount of snack to encourage food tasting. Many fruits and vegetables are thrown away out of fear of trying something new. Lunch is served on glass plates and cups that are washed at the end of every day. All food waste is packed back in lunches so that the parents are able to tell how much food their children eat. A majority of the children waste half their lunch. As with the wastefulness of tissues, many lunches are thrown away when a teacher is turned around. The children have a fascination with throwing something away. I believe it has to do with the responsibility and the children’s enjoy doing something on their own. Food waste could be collected in the classroom and taken to the compost of the local neighborhood garden. We could incorporate more environmentally conscious elements into our classroom and instill in the children the importance of source reduction.

Disposable habits of the students and parents are at two extremes. I will use two interactions to show the differences. Last year we had a student that hated to throw anything away. He would save his tissues to use later, save the plastic storage bags in his lunch and eat or save all his food. These actions were a product of his mothers nagging. The second example is a student currently in my class. At pick up time, the child had a full opened juice box and opened single serving yogurt. The mother told me to throw them both away because she had more in the stroller. Both of these items were very portable, but the mother found it inconvenient to take them along. These actions will surely be passed on the child. Parent and teacher actions speak louder then any ad campaign. After taking this class I will watch my disposable habits because little eyes are always watching.

Our school is located on the first floor of a large apartment building. After lunch the trashcans are usually overflowing. To the teacher discretion, we take the trash to the recycling room of the building. Some teachers do not mind the overflowing litter, but I like the orderly appearance of a closed lid. This recycling room is small, organized and warm place. The super-attendant of the building is responsible for getting these recyclables and school trash out of the building. I have worked at this school for two years and I have never seen this act of removal. The quickest route would be out the front door but I have a feeling that the super takes the trash out the backdoor. I have also never seen trash on the curb of the street near our building. Once again I believe that all the trash related events happen in the back or on the side of the building. Are we ashamed of our waste? Perhaps the health department has a code about garbage collections and schools. The school does not have a dumpster. After Rathje’s book I am happy because surly it would be hitting maximum capacity daily.