Composting hits the Commons

The week of Oct 21-25, Earth Club rolled out 10 compost bins in the cafeteria and new commons. Volunteers stood at each station during lunch to educate students on how to sort their waste. Last week, Winton Mfg. dropped off two 96-gallon buckets for weekly pickup. Winton and Wenatchee Rotary Club sponsored the bins, and they helped with our initial waste audit a few weeks ago, where we determined that over 50% of the waste produced at WHS can be composted. We filled about one and a half bins with four days of collection. 

The first three days, we collected an average of 30 pounds of compost, as we struggled to find volunteer waste monitors. However, we collected data of the amount of trash bins filled up per day. The new commons and cafeteria combined used around 20 bins, but on Friday we reduced that number to eight, four in each area. This number is equivalent to the amount of compost bins Earth Club has purchased, so there is now a compost bin for every trash bin in the main eating area. This allowed us to maximize the food waste collection, which led to 82 pounds being collected on Friday. 

We noticed that this especially large volume of food waste was produced when fish sticks were served for lunch, so we will be collecting data to compare which school lunches produce the most food waste. With this information, we will work with the kitchen staff to develop menus that are most likely to be eaten. 

We saw noticeable progress in the attitudes of the student population. At the beginning, almost no one understood how to properly dispose of compostable material. By Friday, many students could correctly sort without assistance, and some people were even educating others to do the same. This demonstrates the ability of the students at WHS to adapt to change, and we hope they will continue to show willingness and enthusiasm toward our waste program.