21 Minneapolis Public Schools are now composting their lunch waste, including Burroughs, Lake Harriet, Anthony, Barton, Bryn Mawr/Parkview, Cityview, Dowling, Hale, Jefferson, Kenwood, Lake Nokomis/Wenonah, Marcy, Northeast, Northrop UELC, Pillsbury, Richard Green/ Central, Seward Montessori, Southwest High School and Windom. YAY MPS! Many other schools will start in January, including Carondelet Catholic School (link goes to volunteer schedule) and Blake.
Click here for some fantastic posters Joe Durben's 7th Grade Art class made at Carondelet!
Click here to learn how to pack a litterless lunch and help your school's organics program succeed.
Look at the video the creative Minnehaha Academy kids made:
And Carondelet too!
What is organics recycling?
Organics recycling is the recycling of organic waste into compost, a nutrient rich soil. Organic waste includes food scraps and other materials that can be broken down by the natural process of rot. Anything that once was alive is organic, and can be composted. Organic waste will be packaged in special bags, picked up by a truck just like garbage, and taken to a commercial composting facility. Here it will be turned into compost. Organic waste is turned into compost by decomposition. Bacteria and fungi eat the waste turning it into compost. Compost is used in gardens, playing fields, road construction, and landscaping. For information on the science of composting, including educational materials and lesson plans see the links on the right-hand side of the page.
Why is Organics Recycling Important:
It reduces our trash. Waste and what to do with it is a growing problem. We send our waste to the HERC incinerator.
Each year in Hennepin County we generate enough waste to fill the Metro Dome 11 times!
That’s about seven pounds of trash per person, per day!
About 25% of our school’s waste is compostable.
It provides an educational opportunity
Composting provides a wonderful hands-on way to learn about decomposition, and environmental stewardship. Students are actually a part of the composting process. Students can visit a commercail composting site in the Empire township to see the process in action, contact Ken Tritz at 952-946-6999 to set up a tour.
It saves money.
Waste must be moved from the school waste bins, to somewhere. It is either brought to the incinerator, or to the organics composting facility. The cost of moving organic matter to the composting facility is cheaper than the cost of moving trash to the incinerator due to tax incentives and less expensive processing.
The cost of hauling organics is $15 per ton vs. about $41.85 per ton for trash. As organics are much heavier than the plastics that are kept out, savings can be substantial.
Source Separated Organics (SSO) is exempt from the county solid waste fee of 14.5% and state solid waste tax of 17%. If we recycle a lot of organics, this could save the district money.
Organics customers are finding their trash hauler can pick up less frequently, saving labor, fuel, and truck maintenance costs which are built into pick up fees.
