PORTLAND — Lincoln Middle School will launch a new, student-designed cafeteria recycling program on Monday that will pilot an effort to reduce lunchroom waste throughout the district.

Superintendent Jim Morse will join students, staff, parents and others from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Students will demonstrate the separation system that they created for recycling leftover milk, milk cartons, new molded-fiber lunch trays and other items.

The pilot program is a joint effort by the school district, Huhtamaki Packaging of Waterville, which donated several thousand trays made of recycled paper, and KIDS Consortium of Auburn, which gave a $750 Green School grant for the project. 

The idea of replacing foam trays with recyclable ones grew from a service-learning project at Moore Middle School. Seven students in David Hilton’s social studies class won state and national awards for their presentation on the topic. They pitched the idea to the School Committee last summer, helping to pave the way for the Lincoln project. 

Robert Lindsay, a Lincoln science teacher, worked with his seventh-graders to design the recycling program.

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