Each year, the Roots and Shoots Waste Team conducts a whole school waste audit to assess the school’s waste. Our 2022 Audit was conducted by groups from the Waste Team as well as other student volunteers, and took the good part of a day. More than 15 bins of landfill bound waste were emptied and sorted through by the team. Items were sorted by material type, including compostable materials, soft plastics, clean paper and recyclable materials. Sorted rubbish was then weighed, and this data was analyzed to draw conclusions about our waste situation, and trends compared to previous years. The results were staggering. 64% of our landfill bound waste is compostable. 20% of it could be recycled with the recycling bins we already have on campus. 7.4% was harder to recycle items which can not be recycled with the school’s recycling system. Only 6.1% of the rubbish in our landfill bins truly belonged in the landfill. Students also counted 97 disposable masks and 127 coffee cups discovered in the process.
It quickly became clear that our biggest waste problem is compostable waste, destined for the landfill where lack of oxygen during decomposition leads to the emission of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
After analyzing the results, and identifying compostable waste as our target to tackle, Kristin has introduced 5 new We Compost bins to the school. These bins are located in population lunchtime locations. The Waste Team is currently working to promote the proper use of these bins, in hopes that they can make a serious difference to our school’s waste.
Plans are in place for another audit to take place later in the school year, where we aim to see a reduction in compostable landfill bound waste.
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