Food and Waste Management

According to ourworldindata.org, food accounts for approximately 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions. By implementing solutions that manage your school’s food and waste, you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save your school money. See our suggestions below for how to lessen your school’s carbon footprint in this area. 

Short term:

Install more recycling bins

  • Many schools have more trash bins than recycling bins, which discourages recycling by making it inconvenient.
  • Talk to a business worker at your school about adding more bins.
    • Let them know that you are willing to do the work and get more bins, and that recycling helps reduce pollution and create awareness.
  • If they agree, talk with a staff member to find out who provides your school’s trash and recycling bins, and reach out to the provider to see if you can get more bins for free.
  • You can also host a bake sale or fundraiser and buy recycling bins to distribute at school.

Label your school’s recycling and trash bins

  • Many people do not know what items go in the trash vs. recycling so educating your users is important.
  • Often if there is one piece of trash in a recycling bin it contaminates the whole bin, and the whole bin will go to the landfill.
  • This problem can be helped by a relatively easy action – putting labels on trash and recycling bins at your school.
  • You can make a printout with photos of common items used at your school, indicating which bin they should be thrown into. Then laminate them and attach them to bins across campus.

Implement reusable utensils and/or plates

  • If your school serves lunch on single use containers and/or with single use utensils, campaign to have your school switch to reusable cutlery and plates.
    • You can meet with your school’s principal and/or hot lunch team to talk about making the switch.

Saves money

  • For two schools that switched from single use plastics to reusable metal bowls and utensils, “In the first year, the schools saved approximately $3,000 combined by buying the reusable utensils and bowls. The annual per student costs for food-ware dropped from $6.89 to $4.83….Over three years of use, the schools could anticipate saving an estimated $23,000.”

Environmentally friendly

  • The switch to reusable utensils and bowls at these schools prevented almost 6,000 lb of solid waste in the first year alone! In addition, the metal utensils resulted in a 77% reduction in greenhouse gases and water consumption compared to disposable plastic utensils.
  • Instead of buying 700,000 plastic utensils, the school purchased just 12,000 metal reusable utensils.

 

For more benefits of reusable flatware and plates/bowls, visit this report!

Go meatless for one day (or more!) a week

By not eating meat just once a week, you are making a real impact. Here are just a few statistics that quantify how detrimental meat is to the environment:

  • The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions– more than the entire transportation sector!
  • Earthday.org found that:
    • 1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef.
    • If you ate one less burger a week, it would be the equivalent of taking your car off the road for 320 miles.
  • According to meatlessmondays.com, the energy it takes to produce one ¼ lb. of beef is about the equivalent needed to power your iPhone for 6 months.

These statistics give you only a glimpse of the environmental impact that meat has on the environment. So by your school not eating meat for just one day a week, imagine the impact it would have on the environment over the course of the year. Talk with your school’s student council to implement a “no eating meat for a day” or a “Meatless Mondays” policy.

Long term

Compost

A compost is an impactful and feasible action you can take to reduce your school’s carbon footprint. Composting reduces greenhouse gas emissions, educates students on how they can lead sustainable lives, and encourages a sense of community at school. To learn about composting and how you can get a compost at your school, read below!

Prevents harm to the ozone layer

When food waste goes into the landfill it produces methane gas, because it can’t get the air it needs to properly decompose. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is largely responsible for damaging our ozone layer, and when it’s released from landfills it only further contributes to the depletion of the ozone layer. Damage to the ozone layer is a major cause of climate change. When food waste goes into a compost as opposed to a landfill, it’s exposed to oxygen, which allows it to decompose naturally and safely. Therefore, using a compost for your food waste reduces harm to the ozone layer and helps prevent climate change.

 

Saves Water

Soil produced from a compost can hold more water than standard soil, which reduces the need to water plants. Therefore, less water is needed for plants, and water is conserved. You can use the soil from your compost to fertilize your school grounds.

 

Reduces Trash

A compost reduces the amount of food waste that would otherwise end up in a landfill. According to the U.S. EPA, about 24% of our waste is organic material that can be composted. Therefore, by composting, you are preventing a quarter of your waste from going to the landfill and producing harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

Industrial composting is a more intensive way to biodegrade waste products. It can exist in the form of a machine an industrial composting system the compost and food waste collected at your school are transported to a local facility to be made into compost.

Pros of industrial composting:

  • Can eliminate a bigger percentage of your school’s food waste
    • Can take more food waste than a standard compost (ie. certain containers, oil, meat and dairy products, and fruits and vegetables)

 

Cons of industrial composting:

  • Can be expensive
  • May require transportation
    • Vehicle that transports the compost could add to your carbon footprint
  • If it’s an off-campus industrial composter, your school wouldn’t get the soil produced from the compost

 

In-vessel

In-vessel composting refers to methods of composting that occur in an enclosed environment, usually with an accurate temperature control system. In-vessel composters come in a range of sizes, and could be a good choice for your school as they typically are more automated (and therefore require less work) than smaller-scale composters. Below we’ve laid out some types of in vessel composting:

Examples:

  • BioCoTech Americas- BioSpeed M2 Composter
    • This medium capacity machine can process about 40-60 gallons or 2-4 cubic yards of waste per day.

Pickup service (to a facility with industrial composting)

An easier but more expensive method of composting is to engage a local composting company to do the dirty work for you. All you have to do is collect your school’s food waste in bins (your compost pickup company will usually supply you with these) and have it ready for the company to pick up.  Of course your school will have to pay for the composting service but you will not have the up-front cost of buying an industrial composter for your school.

For a list of compost pickup services across the U.S., click here.

Contrary to industrial composting, small-scale composting is very much a hands-on process. This method can successfully biodegrade certain organic wastes in smaller quantities, including fruits and vegetables, as well as yard waste.

Pros of small-scale composting:

  • Benefits campus environment and encourages students to participate since it’s an interactive process
  • Guaranteed access to the nutrient rich soil produced by the composter

 

Cons of small-scale composting:

  • Requires more hands-on maintenance from students or staff than an industrial compost
  • Usually takes smaller variety of food products (no meat, dairy or oil)
  • Takes longer for soil to be produced than industrial composter
  • You would not be able to compost as much food as an industrial composter

Tumbler Compost:

Pros: Cons:
  • 100% rodent free
  • Faster curing time than most options
  • Longer lasting
  • No odors
  • Better for large grass clippings or garden waste
  • Smaller so you would need to buy more than one tumbler
  • The soil isn’t as nutrient rich as soil produced from other types of composts
  • Can be hard to turn if there is a lot inside of the barrel

Cost:

  • Usually within $100-$500 (keep in mind that your school would likely need at least 2 tumblers, so whatever the baseline price is should be multiplied by 2)

Helpful links for more information:

Traditional Wooden Bin – 3 crate system:

Pros: Cons:
  • Relatively cheap
  • Pretty easy to operate
  • Lots of resources on how to build your own
  • Takes weeks – not months – to produce compost
  • Can hold more compost than a tumbler and bin
  • May require rodent proofing (however, with chicken wiring rodents can’t get through)
  • Wire-sided versions may dry out quickly in summer
  • Requires carpentry skills and tools
  • Could smell
  • Wood could get moldy

Cost:

  • To buy:
    • $100-500 dollars
  • Make your own:
    • Cost varies depending on the kind/amount of wood you buy… probably around $100-500

Additional tips:

  • Recommended to turn every few days
  • Recommended to use cedar wood

For more on this method of composting check out these links:

Regular Bin:

Pros Cons
  • Less expensive (at least than a tumbler)
  • Rodent free (depends on type)
  • Low maintenance
  • Doesn’t take up a lot of space (4-6 ft)
  • No smell
  • Doesn’t last as long as other options
    • Plastic may crack or wither
  • May need multiple as they aren’t very big
  • Can take 2-3 months to produce compost (longer than tumbler)
  • 30% lower in price than tumblers for the equivalent capacity
  • Not as easy to access finished compost
  • Might not have great aeration which would slow down to compost (it depends on what model though)

Cost:

  • Less expensive than tumbler
  • Estimated price is from $75-300

Notes:

  • Can hold between 7-20 square ft of compost
    • Usually more than a tumbler can hold

For more on this method of composting check out these links:

Admin want to see you’ve done research, so:

  • Research and choose a composting system.
  • Compile your research to create a compost proposal that includes why composting is important, how composting works, where a compost would go at your school, the cost, what supplies you’d need, and how you plan to get your school involved with the composting system.
  • Present your compost proposal to admin/the facilities department and get approval!
  • Have clubs sign up for shifts to operate the compost for a week in exchange for community service hours.
  • “Advertise” it!
    • Make sure everyone in your school knows there’s a compost and its location.
    • Everyone should know what goes in/ doesn’t go in the compost.
      • Make signs of what can be composted.

Source food that comes from at most a 100 mile radius

This is a great action you can take to reduce emissions produced from transportation as well as encourage your school to source food from local vendors. This is something that you could include in a “Sustainability Guidelines” document for your school, in which you can work with your school’s principal to outline regulations/standards your school must abide by.

Good for the environment

  • Rich Pirog, senior associate director of the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems, found that conventional food distribution was responsible for 5 to 17 times more CO2 than local and regionally produced food (for more information visit here).

 

Foods are more nutrient-rich

  • Local foods are often fresher and in season, making them richer in nutrients and healthier. Processed and non-local foods take more time to get from their source to your school, meaning there’s more time for them to get old and lose nutrients.

Supports local economy

  • You’re supporting your local economy by putting your money towards products from your area.

Less emissions produced from transportation of the food

  • Because the food is local, there’s a smaller distance your food has to travel. Therefore, less greenhouse gas emissions will be emitted from transportation.
Carbon Impact
Reduce Your Footprint
Ways To Proceed