Eugene School District 4J / City of Eugene Waste Reduction Project Final Report June 10, 2015 Overview of project activity during the 2014-15 school year: This year the project focused waste reduction efforts in 4j schools on the following 4 specific areas. 1. Love Food not Waste in the schools: Recruiting schools to join our program and supporting them as they move forward with waste reduction activities. Cafeteria set up as Cesar Chavez Elementary begins collecting food waste for the Love Food not Waste program. Students from North Eugene High School s Green Club monitor food waste collection in the cafeteria. Selected schools representing all the geographic areas of the district were contacted early in the school year and invited to participate in a variety of waste reduction activities. All of the schools we met with had school-wide paper recycling programs in place but most lacked any organized effort to reduce waste in the cafeterias. Our focus was on getting the schools connected with the local commercial composting program
called Love Food not Waste (LFNW) which provides weekly pick up of compostable material. Since many of the schools had done waste audits indicating that up to 30% of their current waste stream was compostable material, LFNW seemed like a wise way to engage the schools. Waste audits were conducted at most participating schools. A class or an after school club provided most of the labor and data collection and volunteers from LCC math classes assisted. See addendums for a full list of the participating schools and data from selected school s waste audit and food waste collection efforts. Fourteen 4j schools signed on to participate in the waste reduction activities organized by the district s EWEB Education Partnership in collaboration with the City of Eugene s Waste Prevention and Green Building group. 7,827 students who attend the participating schools were served by this project. This represents 49% of all 4j students. Weekly collection of food waste across the 14 school sites averaged just over 5,720 pounds. During a full school year this would translate to 100 tons of food waste being diverted from the landfill to Rexius s commercial composting site in Coburg. Cesar Chavez Elementary School cafeteria food waste collection station in action. Camas Ridge Elementary School cafeteria food waste collection station in action.
Chavez Elementary School student emptying food waste into the LFNW bin. 2. Got a Problem? A series of filmed math and engineering problems focused on waste management was developed this year. Teacher ideas for the short (2-3 minute) You Tube videos were solicited and seven were produced for classroom use. Students, custodians and other school staff members were interviewed to set the stage for the problem. All the information needed to solve the problem is included in the video. The idea is to show scenes from the school that the students will recognize and to create fun and engaging ways for students to solve problems. These problems are aligned with the new math common core standards and are a novel way to implement the new context-based problems. Downloadable students worksheets and answer sheets were developed with teacher input. To see descriptions of the, Got A Problem? Videos as well as the videos themselves go to http://eweb.4j.lane.edu/wastereduction.php and click on the Got a Problem? link. 3. Classroom Projects: Project staff developed several STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) related classroom projects for teachers interested in connecting the management of waste with their curriculum. The next photo shows 9 th grade students at South Eugene High School piloting a project requiring that they work in a team to design, build and demonstrate a process for sorting materials commonly found in the waste stream. This project is now available for other teachers to use and will help fulfill some of the new engineering standards.
Students from SEHS working on an engineering activity. A revised solid waste audit procedure for schools has been developed and was used successfully by several schools. The procedure ties the audit process to current math standards appropriate for each grade level. Students not only sort and weigh the waste, they also use the data collected to apply math concepts to the problem of reducing waste. Waste audit at River Road Elementary School. Still under development is an engineering challenge where students build and use an electromagnet to separate ferrous metals from other materials in the waste stream. The project includes a filmed virtual field trip to Pacific Recycling in Eugene where an electromagnet is shown in use. We hope to pilot this project in upper elementary and middle school classrooms next fall. 4. Website Revision/Design: The EWEB Education Partnership website has been revised to include the waste reduction program. The new section at http://eweb.4j.lane.edu/wastereduction.php features links to the Got A Problem activities as well as waste reduction lesson plans, projects and field trips. Teachers can easily access information and activities through this portal.
Staff and volunteer hours spent on the project: Contracted staff hours: 280 hours 4j staff hours (approx.): 250 hours Total staff hours: 530 hours Volunteers: 21 Total volunteer hours: 105 hours Volunteer groups consisted primarily of LCC students participating in a practical math class that took on the responsibility of assisting schools with waste audits. We are pleased to have been able to participate in this excellent project and look forward to continuing and expanding during the next school year. We enjoyed many successes including our collaboration with the City of Eugene and Sanipac as well as the formation of strong connections with participating school administration and staff, especially custodians. We hope to continue using student groups to present information about the composing program to city and school staff as we did this spring. Without exception, participating schools have engaged students in waste reduction efforts, reduced the volume of their waste and seen real value in the ability to compost off-site. We will continue to explore creative ways to keep cafeteria composting programs an active part of the district s efforts to reduce waste and to use the program as an educational tool for the schools.
Addendum A: Participating Schools Elementary Schools Middle Schools High Schools Adams Kelly North Eugene Camas Ridge Kennedy South Eugene Cesar Chavez Spencer Butte Churchill Corridor Edgewood Edison River Road Yugin Gakuen Addendum B: Food Waste Data (Calculated to include the whole 2014-15 school year even though some schools started after September) School Weekly Compost Volume (lbs) Yearly Compost Volume (lbs) Adams 455 15,925 Camas Ridge 341 11,935 Cesar Chavez 680 23,800 Corridor 150 5,250 Edgewood 341 11,935 Edison 455 15,925 River Road 455 15,925 Yugin Gakuen 150 5,250 Kelly 910 31,850 Kennedy 230 8,050 Spencer Butte 341 11,935 North Eugene 910 31,850 South Eugene 341 11,935 Churchill 150 5,250 Total 206,815 lbs = 103.4 tons!
Addendum C: Chavez Elementary School Powerpoint Presentation Presented on May 28, 2015 to city and school district staff.
Some photos from the day of the presentation. Cesar Chavez students and teacher Tana Shepard
Chavez students and Tana with mayor Kitty Piercey North Eugene students
North Eugene Culinart Arts and Green Team students with Kitty Piercey and teacher Annie Lukasik Statement submitted by the NEHS Culinary Arts program: Recently, North Eugene High School has begun a composting program. Before the use of composting was implemented into our culinary program, the levels of waste were much higher. Before we began composting, the two 55 gallon trash cans that we have in the culinary room filled up so much with waste on the days that we cooked, that we sometimes had to empty them out more than once throughout the day. However, since our master recycler Annie Lukasik has privileged us all with the knowledge of composting it s been clear to see how much compostable material was being thrown away on a daily basis. Now, it s the two 23 gallon composting bins that we have to empty out several times a day, while the trash cans can sometimes go for several days without needing to be emptied. Our waste has gone from about 110 or more gallons a day to somewhere around 15 gallons a day maximum. At the very least there is 60 lbs of compostable material between the two bins. We estimated the amount from a study done by Smith Sebasto and student assistants that determined that the average weight of a 10-gallon bucket full of a very heterogeneous mixture of food scraps is 35 lbs. The average weight of a 5-gallon bucket is 19 lbs. Both are of a weight that an average person is able to lift, Smith-Sebasto says. That s a huge difference and it s just in one classroom a day. The program is taking place in the lunchroom too where I would say about a third or more of the students at our school eat lunch. That s over 300 students who normally would just be making trash, that are now composting the remains of their lunches and even the plates and napkins that they use to eat on. It is also in the family resource center and the administration kitchen. The composting program here is just a small step towards limiting the amount of waste in the world. The next step would be to implement it in other schools in the 4J district and to have master recyclers on staff to reduce waste even further. After that, who knows? Maybe Oregon, then Washington and California, then from state to state we could be helping to lead the charge to clean up our world.
Statement submitted by the NEHS Eco Club: The North Eugene High School cafeteria composting program is a very new one, beginning this January, but it should (hopefully) have a very long lasting impact. Previously, there was dire need for some sort of food waste facilities: large quantities of food were getting thrown into the trash uneaten, and the cafeteria uses paper plates and napkins, and all of these were getting thrown away as well. With the combined efforts of students from the NEHS Ecology club and Annie Lukasik, a master recycler, food waste bins were established next to all of the trash bins in the cafeteria. These are functioning to vastly reduce the amount of trash coming from our cafeteria, and has cut the number of trash bins needed in the cafeteria in half. In order to ensure that the food waste is separated properly, all of the food waste bins have signs on them detailing what can and cannot be put into the bins. However this is still not completely successful in keeping the bins properly sorted, so a pair of students go through the trash and compost every day to make sure that all of the waste is disposed of properly. While this project has reduced much of the waste in the cafeteria itself, it can and should be expanded further, as many students do not consume their food in the cafeteria. Hopefully this will function to reduce the waste that the school produces for years to come. Addendum D: Waste Audit Data (from selected schools) Roosevelt Middle School Waste Audit Fall 2015 Type of Material Weekly Volume Source % of Total Waste 1. Food Waste 15 gallons Cafeteria/ cooking class 13.9% 2. Plastic 25 gallons Cafeteria/ classroom 23.25% 3. Paper 50 gallons Cafeteria/ classroom 46.51% 4. Aluminum 5 gallons Cafeteria/ classroom 4.65% 5. Milk Cartons 12.5 gallons Cafeteria/ classroom 11.16%
Organics compostable 35% Edgewood Elementary School Waste Audit January 2015 Pie Chart By Volume Durables Reusable 1% Paper recyclab le 3% Milk/Juice Carton 24% Plastic nonrecyclable 16% Paper non recyclable 21% Plastic recyclable 0% Organics compostable 4% Metals recyclable 2% Edison Elementary School Waste Audit January 2015 Misc. 5% Pie Chart By Volume Paper recyclable 10% Plastic nonrecyclable 19% Paper milk cartons 31% Plastic recyclable 4% Paper non recyclable 25%