D65 Sustainability Update: Oct 25

In honor of America Recycles Day on November 15, the City of Evanston, in partnership with D65 is hosting a Recycling Truck Design Competition. Middle schoolers were invited to submit their original artwork, depicting the dangers of putting batteries in recycling bins.

Vote for your favorite! Check out 10 unique artwork submissions and help choose the design that will decorate a City recycling truck. Vote by Friday, October 31.

Interested in planting new trees on our D65 school grounds this Spring? Make sure to use our refreshed D65 collaboration & approval process and submit your request by Dec 31.

NEW :

• School maps to identify viable spaces for new tree plantings, in partnership with Natural Habitat Evanston and our D65 Team.
• Approved Tree and Shrubs for D65 School Grounds to use when planning your tree planting requests.

The City of Evanston and D65 submitted a joint grant application for $100,000 to the Illinois Safe Routes to School program, which would provide additional traffic safety, bicycle and walking education to our students. The scope of the programming grant application includes piloting in-class and on-road transportation safety programming in 5th grade Physical Education classes in D65. Our hope is that this pilot can be a model for expanded city and district-wide programming and support middle school readiness and increased active travel. We look forward to a decision from IDOT in the Spring 2026.

This pilot will teach 200 District 65 5th grade students how to safely and confidently interact with the road network and use sustainable, active transportation modes as part of their daily life. This weeklong unit will include classroom, parking lot, and on-road learning and will take place during a series of in-school physical education classes during the school day.

To ensure the project benefits all participating students, the program will have an access

component to support bicycle ownership for students whose families face financial barriers. Moreover, the instructional bicycle fleet that will be used for the on-bicycle component of the training will include adaptive bicycles for students who require them.

This pilot program will build a foundation for City- and School District 65-wide programming that reaches students at all district campuses and the Evanston community’s non-D65 elementary schools. Moreover, the fleet will be used for afterschool and summer programming at Evanston parks and community centers.

We rescheduled this meeting to allow for our community to attend both our Sustainability Community Meeting and the community conversations around the Structural Deficit Reduction Plan's (SDRP) school closure scenarios, SDRP website.

All are welcome to attend. Together we're focusing on building a brighter, healthier, more equitable future for our children. Click here for November 11 meeting details.

We're pleased to share our D65 Sustainable Meeting and Event Guidelines rolling out this Fall, including delivery of "event supplies" including 5-gallon compost buckets, tongs, signage (compost, recycling and landfill) and QR code with our new guidelines to each D65 school for staff and PTA to use by the end of October.

In District 65, we strive to reduce our food & packaging waste, boost recycling and composting while reducing our waste to landfill, aligned with our Sustainable Operations Goals in our D65 Sustainability Plan applicable to all School, PTA and Community meetings and events.

Why Sustainable Meetings and Events? Hosting a sustainable meeting or event is a great learning experience for everyone, including planners and attendees, and helps us achieve Sustainable Operations Goals of reducing waste to landfill while increasing recycling & composting. Together, our daily actions truly matter to ensure a healthy and just future for our students, staff, families and generations to come. Appreciate you all for being part of our sustainability journey!

Recycling contamination occurs when materials are incorrectly sorted into the recycling bin (example: food, liquids, wrappers), or when materials are not properly cleaned, such as when food residue remains on a plastic yogurt container. When the amount of contamination in recycling becomes too great, all the items will be sent to the landfill even though some of them are viable for recycling.

At D65, we strive to recycle better together and this school year, in partnership with our School Leaders, are rolling out new school recycling contamination checks to engage our students in recycling better. Options include creating a new classroom job to visually check and provide feedback on what's in your classroom recycling bin. We also have an option for our middle school students to check school recycling bins and provide feedback.

Please update your school's contact information for the 25-26 school year, including:

• Climate Action Team Chair(s)
• School Garden Team Chair(s)
• Climate Club
• School PTA and Newsletter emails

Community members can rescue their Halloween pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns from withering on the front porch or ending up in the landfill by participating in the City of Evanston's 10th annual “It's the Great Pumpkin Compost” collection event. The event will take place on Saturday, November 8, from 9 a.m. to noon, in the parking lot of the old Morton Civic Center located at 2100 Ridge Ave. Learn More.

The Evanston Community Fridges are looking for community members to help shop for, clean, and deliver food for the three community fridges in Evanston. Evanston’s three community fridges provide free food and toiletries to any community member, anytime. To read about the donation guidelines and fridge locations, please visit https://www.evanstoncommunityfridges.com. To learn how to get more involved, please email evanstoncommunityfridge@gmail.com.

ESCCA, the Evanston School Children’s Clothing Association, is hard at work fulfilling its historic mission - to make sure no Evanston child misses school for lack of warm clothing or shoes. ESCCA opened its doors to District 65 children just before the start of the school year so they could visit our store and choose warm clothing, coats, shoes, boots, socks, undergarments, and more. ESCCA has received over 150 referrals so far this school year.

There are many ways to get involved with ESCCA:

• Consider purchasing something from our Amazon Wishlist which we continue to update with the items we need most. Click HERE!

• Contribute financially to ESCCA to help us purchase clothing for the shop. Click HERE!

• Drop off warm clothing in The Clothing Bin - located at 1500 McDaniel Drive (behind the D65 Building)

• Volunteer with ESCCA!

The City of Evanston has partnered with Recycle Coach to help residents reduce waste and improve recycling habits. Through the free Recycle Coach platform, available online or via mobile app, users can access collection schedules, receive service updates, search “What Goes Where?”, and more.

Earn up to $2000 for the development of wildlife habitat at your school! Projects must emphasize student/youth involvement with planning, development and maintenance and increase the educational and wildlife habitat values of the site. Learn More and Apply by Dec. 3.

Calling all SWANCC member communities....Schools, Libraries, and now, Nonprofits are all available to apply for a $500 Waste Reduction Grant!

Do you have an idea for Waste Reduction and need a bit of financial support? Don't wait, apply for a grant today! Need more time to be creative and think through your initiative? No problem. Based on funding availability, applications are now accepted all year!

Waste Grant Announcement

Waste Grant Application

Motivate your students, club, or other group and light a spark of enthusiasm through action!

Low stress, fully funded, and materials are delivered to you. Apply for a $200 Clean Up Grant open year round.

• D65 Sustainability Website
• D65 Sustainability and Garden Resources Library
• D65 Climate Action & Garden Community Contact List
• D65 Sustainability Positive Impact: 24-25 School Year
• D65 Sustainability Positive Impact: 23-24 School Year
• D65 Sustainability Positive Impact: 22-23 School Year
• D65 Sustainability Newsletter Archive