LANSING - Students at a high school in Marquette are helping to reduce the amount of chemical waste in their school, with a little help from a $22,980 state grant.

About 90 of the 136 students at the North Star Academy have participated in the program, said Principal Mary St. Clair.

She said the school created a program that allowed students to "look at the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle through the eyes of the school."

The students take inventory of all chemicals used by the school, including science class supplies and office products like correction fluid and printer cartridges, and create a plan to dispose of them.

The disposal is funded by a grant from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) through its Community Pollution Prevention Grant Program. St. Clair said that DEQ grants are normally used only to remove chemical waste from schools, not to educate students in the process, but the school wanted a way to turn the program into a learning opportunity as well.

"We really feel that it's important to educate young people because they are the stewards of our planet," she said.

In addition to North Star Academy, 10 other schools received grants last year out of 22 that applied, said Maggie Fields, a DEQ pollution prevention field representative.

DEQ gives preference to schools that create a model for disposing of chemicals that could be duplicated in other districts. The unique student-run program at North Star Academy will be published as a guide for other teachers to follow, St. Clair said.

Fields said the grants help get hazardous chemicals out of schools and encourage schools to use fewer toxic materials.

"Classrooms are a threat primarily because you'll get teachers who inherit classrooms from someone else, and also inherit the chemicals," she said. "If they don't do an inventory, they may have chemicals from 1940."

Fields said DEQ expects to fund the same number of school districts this year, but it won't be known which ones will receive money until after the Feb. 15 deadline for applications. A total of $250,000 will be available, with a maximum of $24,000 for each district that is approved. Schools must match at least 25 percent of the total project cost.

"In times when there are tight budgets for schools, this is an opportunity for them to reduce their hazards," Fields said.

Other districts that received grants last year included Fennville Public Schools with $15,000 and Hesperia Community Schools with $11,000.

Christina Parks, a biology and chemistry teacher at Hesperia High School northeast of Muskegon, said her school has removed all hazardous waste and about 95 percent of chemical waste with the grant money. The school is also working to reorganize its stock room.

"It's very costly to dispose of hazardous waste so a lot of schools during low budget years tend to keep it around," she said.

Jon Carr, maintenance director at Fennville Public Schools south of Holland, said his district could have paid the $6,000 chemical waste removal fee if it hadn't gotten the grant, but the money also helped it obtain computer software to keep an inventory of all chemicals in stock.