Food waste has emerged as a significant issue at Algonquin, with many students discarding large portions of their school lunches. However, a new composting program in collaboration with the Enviro-Projects club offers a sustainable solution to reduce waste.
Students throwing away uneaten lunch items has contributed to a growing food waste problem across all three lunch periods. According to a Harbinger survey of 134 students conducted via Google Forms from Dec. 12 to Dec. 15, 30% of students throw away their cheese sticks, 22% throw away their breadsticks, and 82% of students frequently throw away their vegetables. On a scale of one to five, with five indicating a major problem, 39% of students ranked food waste as a four.
This individual food waste adds up, especially considering that a large portion of students buy lunch consistently.
“I say about 80 to 82 percent of waste [at Algonquin is] just the school lunches alone,” custodian Connor Pons said.
Students and faculty alike agree that vegetables are the main food thrown away. Recently retired Food Services Manager Dianne Cofer explained that cafeteria staff are mandated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide a fruit or vegetable with each free meal.
“I think it’s unfortunate the vegetables are not getting eaten and I think it’s unfortunate that we have to put them on the plate, but it is just the way the rules are set,” Cofer said.
There are other rules and regulations that are set by the USDA that public schools must follow regarding nutrition. These include requirements for students’ lunches to include at least five vegetable subgroups over the course of the week, ensure that at least half of the grains served are whole grain, and provide at least two fluid milk options.
“It makes our job a little more challenging because we do have all these regulations we have to follow,” Cofer said. “Even with the vegetables like corn, [which] is the favorite of students typically, we can not just offer it every day because we are bound by having to offer the variety of vegetables. The logic there is for nutritious meals to be well-balanced throughout the week and to get students to eat things they typically wouldn’t eat and to try [new] things.”
While these food regulations can offer positive nutritional benefits for students, they also contribute to increased food waste. This results in organic waste that, if managed properly, could be composted. However, students often fail to make the effort to help the school be eco-friendly.
“People unfortunately don’t see the value in the environment even though fresh water and clean air is incredibly valuable; it’s just harder to put a price tag on it,” Biology and Environmental Science teacher Christina Connolly said.
ARHS alumna and Nsboro Enviro-Projects Club Founder Sasha Sheydvasser noticed that numerous students were throwing away large portions of their food and wanted a way to combat this sustainably. The club contracts with the company Black Earth Compost to remove the collected food waste every Friday throwing the trash bins into their truck.
“I think it’s still a work in progress, but a lot of food that would’ve been thrown out is now being composted,” senior and club project manager Shubhan Kamat said. “I think that Algonquin benefits because there’s a new sustainability approach towards what happens. It creates a closed system; the food is turned back into soil.”
Approximately 80 to 120 pounds of composted food waste is collected each week. Although student participation was limited when the composting program was first introduced, many students have continued to support this effort by composting their lunch on a regular basis.
“As time went on, there’s people that do participate,” Kamat said. “There are a few people that keep coming back to it because they know how important it is.”
But sometimes it can be a little tricky composting because there are certain materials that can and can’t be composted. For example, single-use plastic and metals can’t be thrown in the compost bin. However, the school lunch trays are BPA-certified, meaning they can be broken down and composted. Along with composting the tray, throwing away the leftover food is also an acceptable composting item. Although sometimes used interchangeably, composting and recycling are different and used for various purposes.
“Recycling can collect certain types of plastic, paper and metal that are non-contaminated,” Kamat said. “They don’t have food residue, compared to composting, which is organic materials.”
There is a history of environmental initiatives being discontinued at Algonquin because of a lack of student participation. Facilities Manager Mike Gorman was heavily involved in the previous recycling program. However, the program was discontinued due to insufficient collaboration from students, as many were not following the recycling requirements.
“We even had big huge hangers above the bins that hung signs to show you what’s supposed to go in there,” Gorman said.
Cafeteria workers and custodians also felt overwhelmed by bearing the burden of the time and energy that went into separating trash from the recycling bins when students did not do so themselves.
“If you contaminated the recycling, then it’s all trash,” Gorman said. “So, every day we would be picking it up, and at a certain point, it was ridiculous. So, we said if you’re not recycling then it’s trash.”
The core of the food waste problem is that the majority of students are either unaware it’s an issue, or lack the knowledge on how to effectively reduce it.
“I don’t know if a lot of students or teachers realize if there is food waste,” cafeteria worker Leslie Foley said.
Some students, however, offered suggestions on how to fix the growing issues of food waste, such as promoting composting.
“Provide awareness or put posters around the cafeteria to handle food waste,” one respondent said.
“Teach the students composting and have them compost,” another respondent said.
One student suggested the cafeteria should serve more fresh vegetables, which could lead to less being thrown away.
“Fresh food always tastes better,” the survey respondent said. “Also, maybe ARHS should make a gardening club and use the vegetables grown there in the school lunches. The students who helped grow the vegetables may feel happy knowing they are eating the things they grew as well.”