Compost program continues to grow and make big impact at schools
In case you haven’t heard the good news, LPS launched a pilot program in 2014 that focuses on diverting food scraps and other organic materials in cafeterias from going to the landfill. The pilot started with just 3 schools and the program has now grown to 22 schools. Anyone who has spent time in a school cafeteria has likely seen a large amount of food scraps and paper products going into the trash can. Thanks to the compost program, those materials can now be diverted from the landfill and sent to a local processor to become a nutrient-rich soil amendment.
So what exactly is composting? When organic materials (food scraps, yard waste, manure, etc.) are mixed together and given the right conditions (temperature, moisture, oxygen levels) the materials are broken down by microorganisms. Once the decomposition process is complete, the resulting product is called compost. This material is packed with nutrients and is used to create healthy soils. As a result, students who participate in this program are saving space in the landfill and creating a valuable product for the community.
Lincoln is extremely fortunate to have 3 different local processors accepting compostable material. Schools are currently working with Prairieland Dairy Farm, Waste to Energy Lincoln, and Big Red Worms Vermicomposting. Since the program was started in 2014, over 330 tons of organic waste has been diverted from the landfill and sent to these processors.
When combined with the existing LPS Recycling program, the impact for waste diversion is huge. There were just 13 school days in the month of August, and yet in that time, over 27 tons of material was composted and over 20 tons of material was recycled from our 22 schools participating in both programs. Their average building diversion rate was 52%. Those same schools composted over 44 tons of organic material in September.
While this program is primarily focused in the cafeteria, some of our schools are going above and beyond with their composting efforts. Wysong Elementary is one of our buildings that also collects paper towels and tissues from their classrooms and bathrooms, which means they have a whole-school composting program. As a result of their outstanding efforts, we are seeing an astonishing 85% of their waste diverted from the landfill through recycling and composting.
Of course, these programs aren’t just about the statistics. By having these options available in our schools, we are seeing students and staff stopping to think about what they throw away on a daily basis, asking themselves “is this really trash?” or “how can I reuse or recycle this?”. We hope to spark these conversations in the classroom and at home. There are plenty of opportunities to reduce, reuse, recycle AND compost your waste at home!
Thanks to grant funding from the City of Lincoln Solid Waste Management Division and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, the compost program will continue to grow and is expected to be district-wide in just a few years. Kloefkorn and Campbell elementary schools are the newest participants kicking off the program for 2nd quarter.
Click here to check out the Building Diversion Report for our 22 schools participating in the compost program. And you can check out this REPORT to see the waste diversion efforts for all of our schools.
Updated March 14, 2024
