Bedford Central: Advocates again call for food scrap recycling

By JEFF MORRIS 

Recycling was a big topic during a recent public forum at the Bedford Central Board of Education meeting: both of food scraps, and of the same arguments that have been before the board for several years.

Those who spoke Jan. 15 expressed great frustration with what they perceived as the district’s inaction and resistance to sustainability initiatives. 

Parent Robin Bucco focused on a state DEC grant in support of a food scrap program, for which the district has not applied.

“What this school district has against sustainability practices is beyond me,” she said. “The fact that we have been fighting for adopting environmentally friendly practices for the student body of this district for so many years, and have come against barriers at every single suggestion and idea is not only infuriating, but irresponsible on the part of those in charge of implementing policy.”

Bucco recounted that in June 2022, she presented the board with the work the sustainability committee had done during that school year, and the goals they hoped to achieve the following year. Part of that was a food scrap recycling program. But she said when the conversation resumed that fall, the board said monthly sustainability committee meetings were not needed, though she was told to move ahead with piloting a food scrap project at Mount Kisco Elementary School.

“Fast forward to today, and we are still fighting for this same initiative,” Bucco said. She noted that all of Westchester’s trash goes to “the oldest incinerator in the country” in Peekskill; that air quality in the county receives an F-grade every year from the American Lung Association; and that 50 percent of what is sent to that incinerator could be diverted, such as food scraps and yard waste. 

“I care about our environment because without a healthy one, we have nothing,” said Bucco. 

She asked why she was up against so many challenges from the very people who should be supporting these efforts.

“While so many neighboring districts in our county have been implementing sustainability into their daily practices for years now, here at Bedford Central we are still fighting for our district to take baby steps in the right direction,” she said. “As a business owner, I can understand a tight budget. That is why this grant is so important.”

Nicole Shaffer of Pound Ridge had implored the board in September 2023 to accept a $2,000 grant from the Foundation for Bedford Central Schools for a Pound Ridge Elementary School food scrap pilot program, for which the PRES PTA had committed to fund the remaining costs. 

That request ultimately led to several intense interactions between Shaffer, board members and Superintendent Robert Glass at board meetings in October 2023, with the check from FBCS having been cashed and then refunded.

Shaffer returned to the board for this meeting, saying, “I can’t believe we’re talking about funding for food scrap recycling again.” 

She clarified that they were talking about two separate funding opportunities for districtwide food scrap recycling: one from a separate entity with no matching required, “that you want them to rescind”; the other, from the DEC, that she brought up in November, that the district doesn’t want to apply for. 

“I’m confused,” she said. “With the economic landscape we just heard about [at an earlier budget presentation], I get that you don’t want to use the budget right now to fund a food scrap recycling program, but that’s exactly why we should be pursuing and welcoming these grants. And yet, you’re not.”

Shaffer said she had offered to fill out the application and help fundraise for the $10,000 to $12,000 match that might be needed, but the district doesn’t want to submit it. If they were lucky enough to get both, she said, it would cover over two and a half years of a districtwide program. “Why would you turn down the potential of free money that can be used to teach invaluable lessons to our children about sustainability and enable them to actually make a difference in the world around them?”

Shaffer contended that funding for food scrap recycling always seems to have “more scrutiny and pushback than anything else.” She presented a litany of examples of the district acting against sustainability: disbanding the sustainability committee; not wanting grant money for sustainability initiatives; continuing to buy oil-fired burners when cleaner, healthier, and more efficient and economical options exist; and installing turf fields with known health and environmental concerns. 

“Quite frankly, it’s an embarrassment that our district doesn’t value sustainability even as those around us continue to do so,” she said.

Sarah Douglas of Pound Ridge said she had founded the Green Wolves at PRES 10 years earlier, a very engaged group of parents that ultimately disbanded because the district did not support them. “It’s embarrassing that John Jay, down the street, can have a sustainability committee for decades, thriving, and we can’t get a committee together,” she said, and noted 60 percent of kids are dealing with eco-anxiety. “How does it feel for them to sit in a classroom in a school that doesn’t care about sustainability?”

Douglas was followed by several student members of the Fox Lane High School Green Team. They noted that fellow students don’t care about recycling, lamenting that a $75,000 grant that was turned down could have been used to educate kids from an early age on the importance of recycling.

Several more parents spoke in support of food scrap recycling and getting grants to support it, before the Q&A period was closed. The board then reacted to one claim made during the forum: that the Fox Lane cafeteria is using nonrecyclable foam trays. Trustees Robert Mazurek and Steven Matlin, along with Glass, said that needed to be investigated, because they had specified when awarding the food service contract that only recyclable trays were to be used.