Let’s Start Composting
Vision
Our vision for Canada is… to be environmentally responsible citizens who strive to improve efforts to reduce waste and protect our natural resources.
Action
Members of the Green Team and EcoLeague conducted our annual school wide waste audit in November. We observed that we throw out a considerable amount of paper towels and facial tissues into the garbage and learned that these could be diverted from the waste stream by beginning an organic collection program. We purchased organic “kitchen catchers” for all classrooms, staff washrooms and the staff room. To increase the likelihood of success and participation in the collection, we limited organics collection to paper towels and facial tissues. Each day, students and staff dump their kitchen catchers in central collection bins. Once a week, our custodian takes these bins out for curbside collection by the Waste Management company. It is our hope that as students and staff become trained and comfortable in this collection process, that we may be able to expand to include other organic food waste. This project will help to reduce the amount of garbage going to the landfill and encourage students and staff to be more conscious of what they do with waste at school and home.
Reflection & Celebration
Organics collection is up and running at our school. Each week, four large organic bins of paper towels and facial tissues are picked up for central composting by Waste Management. This means that we are reducing the amount of garbage that our school is sending to the landfill. We plan to continue this compost collection next year, and into the future, and look forward to seeing the results of our next waste audit.