Cedar Falls School District Launches Informative Recycling Website,
Sets Recycling Goals for Academic Year

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – After a successful inaugural year, the Holmes Helps recycling program has rebranded to Cedar Falls Schools C.A.R.E, expanding the programs to multiple schools across the district and launching an informational website to house various recycling resources at cfschoolscare.com.

“Recycling as a whole is very important to teach, but we know that the majority of students learn more when lessons are implemented outside of the classroom,” Eric Rosburg, director of instructional services for the Cedar Falls school district, said. “By encouraging our students to make small changes to their daily lifestyle, we can help raise a generation of students who are environmentally conscious.”

Food waste is a major contributor to landfills across Iowa and the United States. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that 63.1 million tons of food waste was generated in 2018. To combat this, Cedar Falls Schools C.A.R.E. added bins for composting, plastic recycling and landfill in the lunchroom in addition to creating materials to teach students what goes into each bin. As of last year, Holmes Junior High was only the second Iowa school that was actively composting and recycling school lunches.

“In the very first year, we were able to properly compost over 3,000 lbs. of food that could’ve otherwise ended up in a landfill,” Maya Mallavarapu, program founder and current student at Cedar Falls High School, said. “I’m looking forward to seeing the impact this program has across different schools and continuing to teach others about how important it is to take care of our planet.”

Cedar Falls Schools C.A.R.E.

For more information about Cedar Falls Schools C.A.R.E., go to cfschoolscare.com.

Cedar Falls Schools C.A.R.E. is a recycling program dedicated to teaching students how to positively impact the world through recycling and composting. The program is made possible through a partnership between the school district and the Green Iowa AmeriCorps.

Originally called Holmes Helps, the program was founded in Fall 2020 by student Maya Mallavarapu. During the program’s first year, Holmes Helps prevented roughly 100 lbs. of plastic and 3,000 lbs. of food waste from going to landfills and received the Sylvan Runkel Award for outstanding whole-school environmental education program at the 2021 IAN-ICEC Awards for Excellence in Environmental Education.

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