The Resident
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'Zero waste' lunch program launches at 8 schools
By Stephen Baxter
Banana peels and apple cores used to get pitched in the trash during lunch at Oster Elementary School in San Jose, but now they go in to green plastic bags to be composted.
Since the school put out recycling bins and began using compostable lunch trays, napkins and sporks in the cafeteria this month, its waste has been reduced by 75 percent. Food scraps are composted and used for landscaping, and the money the school saves in trash- hauling costs are on track to pay for the more expensive, environmentally friendly lunchware. The school used to use Styrofoam trays.
"I think it's wonderful for the school, the students and the families," said Oster principal Randy Martino. Students who bring their lunch are using more reusable containers, he said, and eating less prepackaged food could also improve students' health.
"I see a lot of good habits forming," Martino said.
The city of San Jose has partnered with all eight schools in the Union School District with a Zero Waste Lunch Program this school year.
The composting program is part of an expanded effort to promote recycling at local schools that has helped San Jose's Go Green school program become recognized as one of the best in the nation. The National Recycling Coalition this month awarded San Jose's recycling effort as "Outstanding K-12 School Program."
Since 2005, the Go Green Schools program has connected 100 San Jose schools to free recycling supplies and other green resources. More than 69 schools have set up recycling programs through Go Green and helped divert 372,220 tons of beverage containers out of local landfills last year.
Local leaders are looking to expand the composting program to schools citywide.
District administrators approached the city last school year about expanding their environmental initiatives. Since then, city and school officials brought in the new bins and talked to students and parents about composting and recycling.
One reason to start is that some schools' garbage bills have tripled in recent years, city officials said.
The Zero Waste Lunch Program is in a trial for the 2008-09 school year, and students seem to be embracing it.
Emilie Jenkins, a 9-year-old fourth-grader at Oster, volunteered to help her classmates pick the right bin to toss lunch scraps. Near the benches outside the cafeteria, Emilie and about four other students stand by the new bins and makes sure their classmates empty their yogurt containers in to the compost bin before they recycle them, or put cans in the recycling bags.
"I used to just toss everything in the same bin; now I separate them," Emilie said.
She said she liked being a recycling helper, plus, "It's pretty interesting seeing what other people got."
Some of the students' green habits have been rubbing off at home, school administrators said, and many students have asked parents to start compost piles.
Emilie said she, too, asked her mother to start a compost bin. "My mom said, 'yes,' and she's working on it," Emilie said.
Christine Wolter, San Jose's integrated waste program manager, said reaching out to elementary schools is a good way to tie early education in to some hefty waste reduction.
"If we're ever going to become a zero-waste city, this is one of the best ways to do it," Wolter said. "We have the students teaching parents."
Photograph by Stephen Baxter
Students at Oster Elementary School in San Jose, including Bradley Koauser (center) toss lunch waste in to recycling and garbage bins on Sept. 18. Oster is one of several schools that started lunch composting and recycling programs in September with help from the city of San Jose.