Composting, Finally!

Last April, I blogged about how my kitchen is spearheading our school’s composting program using Save That Stuff, a Boston-based waste management company.  Middle and upper schoolers “practiced” composting by separating compostable from trash during lunch, but the program didn’t take off because there was no supervision to make sure waste was going in the appropriate bins. 

We’re at it again, and I’m happy to report that we’re getting ready to send our first food waste to the composting facility this upcoming week.  This new year I was prepared with all the necessary tools to make it a success:  I made announcements to students and staff, sent out an informational email about composting, and recruited teacher volunteers to watch the bins during lunch time. 

Our composting bins in our cafeteria are lined with compostable bags, a necessary requirement to compost with Save that Stuff.  Composting isn’t cheap:  each bag costs about sixty-five cents, and the minimum cost to come pick up our compostable waste is $20.  However, trash pick-up in general is pretty expensive.  If our school is paying good money for trash removal, I’m glad that the cost is going towards compost rather than a landfill. 

Our very first bag of compost! 

As of now, our composting program doesn’t affect the work in my kitchen whatsoever.  Teacher watch the bins, and our maintenance department cares for the contents of the compost bins.  However, very shortly, kitchen food scraps such as cucumber peels, tomato stems and freezer burned food, will go into the compost bin too.