Archive for composting
Eco-School Cuts Trash By 46 Percent with Waste-Free Lunch Challenge
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Anne Hathaway Public School green students recently participated in the Waste-Free Lunch Challenge and the results were impressive. Anne Hathaway Public School is located in Stratford, Ontario (that’s right, Justin Bieber’s hometown), with students from kindergarten to grade 6. “The Waste-Free Lunch Challenge is an elementary school program developed by the Recycling Council of Ontario in partnership with Metro Ontario Inc. and Tetra Pak Canada. The goal of the program is to help schools decrease the amount of garbage they produce and to educate students, staff and parents about waste reduction.” Twenty participating schools will win $1,000 and Anne Hathaway is in contention (good luck!).
According to the Recycling Council of Ontario, “School lunches are a major source of waste in Ontario with the average student’s lunch generating a total of 30 kilograms of waste per school year, or an average of 8500 kilograms (18,700 lbs) of waste per school per year.”
During the week prior to the challenge, Anne Hathaway Public School conducted a pre-audit of their waste which equated to 15.42 kilograms of garbage. Then during Waste Reduction Week from October 17 to October 22, 2011, Anne Hathaway’s green students brought waste-free lunches to school which resulted in a waste reduction to 8.27 kilograms. That’s a 46 percent decrease in waste and 7.15 kilograms of garbage that didn’t end up in a landfill.
The Stratford Gazette spoke to Tarra Green, the teacher that spearheaded and organized this green initiative at the school who said: “It’s important for the kids to take care of the Earth; they are in charge of their future.” It’s commendable that teachers like Tarra Green are inspiring and encouraging students to make greener choices for a sustainable future.
Packing a waste-free lunch is simple and can be accomplished through these 5 easy steps:
1. Pack food in reusable lunch containers
2. Wash and reuse real silverware and cloth napkins. Say no to plastic cutlery and disposable napkins!
3. Store juice, milk, water or other beverages in a reusable and sustainable BPA-free bottle
4. Control food portions to ensure that there are no ‘leftovers’ to dispose of; compost any scraps
5. Pack it all in a reusable lunch bag or tote
Waste Reduction Week is already set for next year – October 15 to 21, 2012. Let’s hope all elementary schools follow the lead of Anne Hathaway Public School and participate in the Waste-Free Lunch Challenge in 2012. If one school in one week can almost cut their waste in half, imagine what communities of schools across Ontario can accomplish.
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Posted by: | CommentsAs you may recall the eco-friendly efforts of Frito-Lay with their Sun Chips brand packaging caused quite a buzz when the compostable packaging was removed from many flavours due to the bags being too noisy according to customers! I’d written about that previously on this post, but now a new story from the UK brings snack food packaging back into the spotlight for sustainable packaging ideas in an exciting way. ‘Walkers’ make the most popular potato chips (crisps) in the UK market and the manufacturers promise a new bag will be introduced in the future that not only will be made from potato skins but they guarantee it will also be much quieter than the effort from Sun Chips. Hopefully that will silence the critics. Interestingly, Walkers are owned by Frito-Lay who in turn are owned by PepsiCo – the food and drinks giant who are investing a huge amount to further their sustainable practices.
Walker's look to make packaging from potatoes
They’ve announced that the new bags are hoping to reach the market in 2012 following extensive testing, reports from the Carbon Trust show that the average bag of Walkers crisps creates about 80 g of carbon dioxide with approximately a third of that due to the packaging. PepsiCo are linking this to part of their overall initiative to reduce carbon footprint that they manufacture by improving water consumption, reducing waste, recycling in greater quantity and ramping up changing their farming methods where possible. Due to the international passion for snack foods and compostable packaging looks more and more likely to become a growing staple within the industry, PepsiCo with Walkers are looking to develop the packaging using the offshoots and waste from the actual manufacturing of the chips. The plan is for unused potato skins and roots from the crops to be combined into a hybrid that will actually contain the chips themselves. It would result in complete use of the crops being grown, significant waste reduction and a bag that can be composted easily and efficiently. While the Sun Chips saga made headlines for the strangest reason due to the noise made by the bags, customer feedback also showed that many consumers loved the idea of the packaging and were sad to see it go. With the continued advances in technologies there is a great likelihood that packaging will become more and more biodegradable, the thought of filling a recycling bin as well as a compost bin might not appeal to everyone but it provides options for many that will be more environmentally friendly. I must mention that Walkers make the most amazing crisps, and offer a range of flavours that borders on the absurd as you can tell by the image on today’s story.
The chips are down in the race for the most eco-friendly packaging, I’m excited to see who will win – hopefully everyone.
Tags: compostable packaging, composting, Eco Friendly, eco friendly packaging, frito-lay, pepsico, planet forward, potatoes for packaging chips, Recycling, sun chips, sun chips packaging, sustainable farming, sustainable packaging, walkers crispsComposting Tips I’ve Learned
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All of us greenies have made a promise to only eating local organic produce when possible and perhaps even growing your own products to reduce our carbon footprint. To take that promise to the next level we must compost all the scraps from that delicious produce. You may not be concerned about how this will go because you’re not a beginner and you have a composter. Maybe it hasn’t been a resounding success so far. You may have to wade through the flies to open the lid and the atrocious smell makes your eyes water and you’re not sure but you think you saw something suspicious sliding down the container. If you can relate to this, there are some very simple steps you can take which will improve your composter and make it the envy of your neighbourhood.
Let’s start with the most offensive problem first the smell. What you need to know is that your nose is the key to running a productive composter. Your first tip that something is amiss is the smell – if the container smells than the balance is off. Secondly, don’t panic and place the composter in the shade praying that it will right itself, as it will hamper productivity. Compost is based upon heat- the higher the heat, the quicker the compost breaks down. Thus place the composter in an out of the way place that gets plenty of sunshine, and the scraps will decompose that much faster. Third step for correcting a composter gone wrong is what is in it – never just dump a hodgepodge of everything from grass to fruit and vegetable scraps in the container. The best way to compost is to comprise it into layers. A common formula is grass clippings, dried leaves, food scraps, a layer of soil and repeat. The soil acts as a buffer and helps bring in additional nutrients.
Tags: carbon footprint, compost, composter, composting, Green Living, planet forward, reduce consumption, reduce waste, waste consumption
