There is a lesson taught in every school in Newtown at every level that passes the test of relevance every time: don’t waste valuable resources. From the very start of their schooling, children are taught to care for and share scarce supplies and not to throw out or destroy something that can be used again for the same or some other purpose. It a basic and logical lesson for a generation that will soon be pressed to reinvent the world to make the most of limited material resources in the face of accelerating population growth. Our kids better understand the lessons of recycling when they see the concept in action each day in their own schools. Here in Newtown, however, that is a hit or miss proposition.

In Connecticut, recycling is the law. Everyone must recycle, including all public schools, yet every day Newtown’s schools are in session recyclables are thrown out with the trash, despite the best efforts of some individuals on the custodial staff to separate glass and metal beverage containers, newspaper, office paper, and cardboard from the rest of the refuse generated in the schools for subsequent delivery to the town’s recycling center. From what we have been able to determine from administrators, custodians, and contractors, the recycling program in the schools is ad hoc and unevenly implemented.

The new interim superintendent of schools said he has yet to be briefed by school principals on recycling efforts in the schools. The district’s business director said the district has no contracted recycling services per se, but added that he believes the district’s contracted waste hauler is separating recyclables from the trash — something that is prohibited by state law and the hauler denies. And since the Board of Education has no written recycling policy for the district, the school system’s food service contractor, Chartwells School Dining Services, said it does not even put out recycling receptacles in the cafeterias.

Successful institutional recycling programs are coordinated from the top down, not from the bottom up, as appears to be the case in Newtown’s schools. The superintendent said this week that he expects to hear from school principals on this issue later this month. But the Board of Education needs to get started now on creating a formal recycling policy that coordinates and codifies the disparate recycling efforts in Newtown’s seven public schools. The goal should be to have that policy in place and effective recycling programs in place in each of the schools on the first day of school, August 28. Yes, that’s just over two weeks from now, which might be difficult, but not impossible. It will be worth the effort to ensure that the important lessons of recycling are not thrown out with the trash.