The amount of food waste generated from school lunch rooms is, unfortunately, significant. Uneaten food and discarded food service packaging creates tons of waste that go into the landfill, if not otherwise managed. Many school districts are implementing programs to reduce the amount of food related waste their kitchens and school lunchrooms produce.  

Some school districts have their food scraps collected to be composted rather than taken directly to the landfill. The compost is used to enrich the soil in our gardens and parks. Food scrap composting is an effective method of reducing the amount of food waste that ends up in our landfills. This is an easy example of “closing the loop” while working to preserve our natural environment, and complying with our State mandated solid waste diversion goals.

 

Benefits of Organic Recycling in Schools

  • Better for the environment and health of people
  • Less organic waste ends up in landfills
  • Less production of methane gas 
  • Creates valuable compost
  • Help raise awareness in waste reduction overall
  • Reduces disposal costs

 

For more information on how to do composting at your school, access the Backyard/Home Composting section on the RecycleMore website

 

RecycleMore is currently working with West Contra Costa Unified School District and the local garbage collection company to help setup an organics recycling program to help collect the food scraps generated from school lunches. These scraps will be collected by the garbage collection copmany, and then will be used to create compost for the community. 

If your school is interested to setup an organics collection program at your school, please access the RecycleMore webpage to learn more about the program and use the online requset form.

[CLICK HERE]