St. Francis Parish and School Blazing Trails for the Environment!

St. Francis Parish and School have been honored for a third four-year term as members of Community Partners for Clean Streams, a program of the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner's office to support and preserve our county's water resources; you may have noticed the "No Dumping, Drains to River" signs painted near parking lot drains. To retain our membership we went through an operational audit by the Commissioner's staff, and developed our own Environmental Policy Statement, approved unanimously by the Parish Finance Council in September, 2011; a copy of that statement follows. As reported earlier this year, the Parish and School were again awarded a "Waste-Knot" Award for 2011, by Washtenaw County, Department of Planning and Environment, marking our twelfth consecutive year that we have been so honored! The award stated that our "waste reduction and reuse, recycling, use of recycled products, and education efforts are outstanding". A wide variety of items, including laser printer cartridges, pizza boxes, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and wood pallets, are collected for recycling, and recycling containers are conveniently located throughout the School and Parish Office. Re-usable items that are no longer needed by the Parish or School are typically taken to the Re-Use Center of Recycle Ann Arbor, or offered to local social service agencies, and, during the growing season, organic waste is collected and delivered to the Drop Off Station located on Ellsworth Road. We are proud and pleased to continue to be among the leaders in our community in these important efforts. This is from a Forum article published in September 2011