The end of the school year is fast approaching. Twelve days for me, but who's counting? The end of school, in many grossly unrealistic teen movies, is often punctuated by kids gleefully throwing books and papers all over the hallway as they stick it to the man by trashing their locker before they head off for a summer of debauchery.

In reality, kids do have to clean out their lockers, and those of you with teens know how items in their possession tend to…accumulate, shall we say, over time. I've got students with textbooks, binders, notebooks, and paperbacks crammed into every square inch of their lockers. All that goes somewhere at the end of the year, and oftentimes, that place is the ginormous trash bins placed in the hallway to make end-of-year checkout move as smoothly and quickly as possible.

What's this got to do with green living? In my experience, the large majority of what gets thrown away at the end of the year is reusable or recycleable. With a little advanced preparation, and some prompting from teachers and parents, the piles of paper products, pencils, pens, etc., can be diverted from the trash and put to good use.

• Those old tests, worksheets, and papers that might not be fridge-worthy can easily be recycled: just make sure the trusty recycling bins are in just as convenient a place as trash bins.
• Start a school-supplies freestore. I easily did this by asking both teachers (we've got our own mess to clean up, as well) and students for still-usable three-ring binders, tablets, notebooks, writing utensils, looseleaf, markers, crayons, etc. Set up a collection table in a centrally-located area. Encourage kids to turn in items by swapping old items with summer-worthy trinkets like paperbacks, candy, pool passes, gift cards, etc. I use the collected items the following year for students who need supplies.
• Don't forget other recycleables: I guarantee that among the school-related items, their are surely soda bottles, aluminum cans, etc, that can also be recycled.
• Make sure there's a lost and found area: teens often borrow each others clothes, only to forget where they came from. Better they find their owner than end up in a landfill. Same with books, CDs, and other personal items.
• If you've got younger kids, make a trip to help your child clean out their locker without just pitching everything. Better yet, see if your PTO can help create a gently-used supply closet.

I'm lucky that I sponsor Student Council–this is an easy, but productive service project for my young activists.

Pssstt…You can do the same thing when you clean out your home office…