Every day, schools across America throw tons of leftover food into the garbage, adding to an already overburdened municipal solid waste stream and squandering an opportunity to teach students about composting. Through a school composting program (in most cases, a vermicompost, or worm-based program), students learn about nature’s own built-in recycling program. In the process, they create valuable compost which can be used to enrich soil on school grounds.

For health and odor considerations, food-scrap recycling programs should be established and monitored by knowledgeable staff.

Resources:

The California Integrated Waste Management Board has an excellent and comprehensive one-page overview of Food Scrap Composting, with links to other pages on their site for further information. This is a great resource!

The Davis (CA) Unified School District conducted a pilot program of food scrap recycling at three of their elementary schools. Two of the schools achieved a 40% reduction in total waste. Click here to read the final report.

A group of parents, teachers and administrators in Mansfield, CT worked together to create a school composting program. The results of their work (and detailed recommendations for other schools) are contained in a report entitled “School Composting - A Manual for Connecticut Schools.”