Samantha Krahenbuhl - Turning School Food into Compost at School
Samantha Krahenbuhl - On Staten Island the children that attend Public School 30 are part of a program that turns the unused parts of school lunches into compost. Some of the kids don’t like bananas because they smell funny or it makes their stomachs hurt so they go into the compost bin after lunchtime at PS30. It is a school that is environmentally conscious after many nutritionists, parents, and environmentalists have been frustrated how many fruits and vegetables are distributed to student lunch trays only to end up in a landfill. Even though the students at PS30 are still pretty picky and wasteful, at least they are able to learn about compost and dispose of their unused fruits and veg in an environmentally friendly way, rather than contributing it to a giant trash heap. PS30 is not the only school involved in this initiative. The school composting program was kicked up in New York City’s Upper West Side and is now in nearly 230 school buildings throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, and PS30’s home, Staten Island. The ultimate goal is to expand the program to the remaining boroughs so that it includes all 1,300 school-buildings. Once the fruits and vegetables leave the compost bin in the school cafeteria, it is transported to either an old Staten Island landfill or to upstate New York or Delaware. There the food product slop is churned until it has been changed into nutrient rich soil for farmers or landscapers to purchase. Some parts of the biodegradable slop will be sent to Brooklyn were the city will use “digesters” to make it into gas. The chief of the Education Department’s facilities says that “there’s a lot of carbon in that banana that’s going to end up growing something else in your garden at home…It’s the circle of life, baby.” This process will save the city some money, help out the environment, and educate the children on what can be put in compost and how to treat the environment well.
