florenceville elementary school - waste audit summary from may 8th, 2014

Florenceville

Elementary School: Waste Audit Summary

May 8th, 2014

The Gaia Project 270 Rookwood Ave Fredericton, NB E3B 2M2 1 (506) 442-9030 www.thegaiaproject.ca [email protected]

Florenceville Elementary School: Waste Audit Summary

A summary of the results from the waste audit conducted on May 8th, 2014.

Copyright © 2014 The Gaia Project. Last updated on May 13th, 2014.

Commercial reproduction of The Gaia Project materials is prohibited without prior written permission

The Gaia Project is a charitable organization whose mission is to empower youth to make informed deci-

sions about energy and its impact on the environment.

We develop projects, provide professional development, technical support and ongoing project support for

teachers and students. Our projects aim to incorporate three key principles, which symbolise our focus on

realistic environmentalism.

1. Data-Informed Decisions – We want students to be able to explain why, and quantify the effect of

each decision they made along the way to their final solution.

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lutions, and be able to optimize their projects with limited budgets.

3. Environmental Impact and Lifecycle Assessments – We need students to take a holistic view to their

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use phase, and acknowledging that greenhouse gas reduction is not the only environmental issue at

stake.

For more information, please visit www.thegaiaproject.ca

The Gaia Project 270 Rookwood Avenue Fredericton, NB E3B 2M2 Canada 1 (506) 442-9030 [email protected]

This project was supported by donations and grants from:

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© The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca


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Overview

The Gaia Project and Florenceville Elementary

School collaborated on an audit of the schools’

waste on May 8th, 2014. Florenceville

Elementary School’s “Gaia Club” students,

along with Ms. Poirier and Ms. Carmichael,

have been working on firstly examining the

school’s waste and subsequently looking for

ways to reduce the school’s overall waste

footprint.

An initial audit of the school’s waste was done

on October 18th, 2012—approximately one

and a half years earlier— and this audit was a

follow-up. The process and results are detailed

within this report, including a comparison of

the results from October 2012 to May 2014.

All photos are courtesy of Sylvie Poirier and

Valerie Carmichael.

The Process

For the current waste audit, the custodial staff

collected all of the garbage at the school on

May 6th, bagged it and placed it outside for us.

Sorting categories We decided on 6 sorting categories:

Paper & Cardboard

Recyclable plastics

Milk Cartons

Compost

Garbage

Returnable Drink Containers

The waste audit done in October 2012 included

a category for metals, which the Gaia Club

students decided to change to Milk Cartons for

this audit. The reason for this was because very

little metal was observed in the 2012 audit, and

students thought that milk cartons would be

more abundant in the garbage.

Weighing and Sorting After deciding on our 6 sorting categories, Gaia

Club students were provided with gloves,

divided into teams and provided with a kit of

supplies.

Before any bags were opened, the weight of

each bag was recorded so that the starting

amount of waste was known and could be

checked against the final amount.

Weighing each bag before sorting

Group “Hard Core” sorting the garbage

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Groups then opened the bags and sorted its

contents.

We subsequently weighed the contents of each

sorting category at the end of the audit. The

data from each group was entered into an excel

spreadsheet so that we could build a picture of

how much waste the school produces in a day

from each of the 6 sorting categories.

Results

The total weight of waste collected from 1

typical school day was approximately 10 kg.

The estimated total weight from one day in

October 2012 was 19 kg, representing a 9 kg or

46% reduction over the year and a half since

the initial audit. While there are many

variables that haven’t been controlled for, this

46% reduction in overall waste may indeed

represent a significant overall reduction in

waste at the school!

May 2014: 10 kg total waste

October 2012: 19 kg total waste

9 kg, or 46% reduction when comparing

October 2012 to May 2014

You can find the actual weight from each

sorting category (our raw data) in Table 1 in the

Appendix. The proportion of waste in each

category can be seen in the pie chart below.

As a comparison, the percentage per category

from October 2012’s waste audit is included

below (you can find the data in Table 2 of the

appendix).

Included below is a comparison graph, which

compares the amount of total waste per

category from October 2012 to May 2014 and

highlights the categories that have increased or

decreased.

Finally, the amount of waste collected and

sorted into each category has been projected

forward to provide an estimate of the waste

produced on an annual basis. Assuming 190

school days in a year, Florenceville Elementary


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School produces approximately 1,900 kg of

waste annually.

Assuming 220 students that regularly attend

Florenceville Elementary School, each student

produces approximately 0.05 kg of waste per

day, and 10 kg annually.

Summary

Through the process of measuring how much

and what type of waste Florenceville

Elementary School produces, it was discovered

that on May 7th, 2014:

36% of the waste could have been

recycled. This includes paper, cardboard,

milk cartons & other drink containers,

and recyclable plastic.

34% of the waste was compostable

material.

30% of the waste was actual garbage that

needed to be there.

Paper Comparing the amount of paper in the garbage

from October 2012 (3.8 kg) to May 2014 (1.7

kg), there has been a 55% decrease in the

amount of paper put into the waste stream.

From this waste audit comparison, we can

assume that, on average, between 15-20% of

the total waste is paper.

Recyclable Plastics Comparing the amount of recyclable plastics in

the garbage from October 2012 (2.5 kg) to May

2014 (0.7), there has been a 72% decrease in

the amount of recyclable plastics put into the

waste stream.

It would be safe to conclude that approximately

5-15% of Florenceville Elementary’s waste is

recyclable plastics.

Compost Comparing the amount of paper in the garbage

from October 2012 (8.8 kg) to May 2014 (3.5),

there has been a 60% decrease in the amount

of compost put into the waste stream.

Compost represents a large share of the total

waste generated at Florenceville Elementary

(35—50%). The school’s composting program,

initiated since the last audit in October 2012,

has reduced the amount of compost being put

into the waste stream by over 60%.

Garbage There was not much of a change from the

October 2012 waste audit and the May 2014

waste audit in terms of the amount of actual

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garbage produced (3.1 kg and 2.9 kg

respectively). Between 15% and 30% of the

school’s total waste is garbage, and actually

needed to go to the landfill. If the school was

to continue to reduce, recycle and compost,

there is still potential to reduce the school’s

overall annual waste from 1,900 kg to ~600 kg.

Through this audit, we observed a great

improvement from the 3,700 kg produced

annually in 2012! With further reductions, each

student would only generate 3kg of waste at

the school annually, compared to the ~10kg

produced per student per year currently, or the

17 kg produced per student annually from the

2012 audit.

Recommendations

After the waste audit was completed, the Gaia

Project along with the “Gaia Club” and Ms.

Poirier, brainstormed ideas around reducing the

amount of waste produced at Florenceville

Elementary School. These recommendations

are presented below:

Composting:

Conduct another student led

presentation to re-introduce the compost

bins and system to the rest of the school.

Place compost bins in the staffroom,

kitchen and office.

Recycling:

Place a full set of bins in each classroom

covering all categories.

Create signs with pictures detailing what

can be recycled to make it easy and fun.

Create generally bigger signs.

Paper:

Place paper recycling bins in each

classroom.

Encourage the re-use of paper by

finishing any stories you’ve started (or

saving them for later), using both sides,

using scraps to draw on, and saving

printer mistake paper.

Milk Cartons:

Designate an appropriate place where

excess chocolate milk can be disposed.

Have announcements about how milk

cartons can be re-used such as for

planting seeds, making bird feeders, or

other crafts.

General:

Place a bin in each classroom for pen/

pencil re-use.

Encourage people to bring their lunch in

re-usable containers.

Conclusion

The Gaia Project was very impressed with the

sustainability initiatives under way at

Florenceville Elementary School, especially its

highly effective composting program that has

helped reduce the amount of waste generated


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daily by 46%! We consider the school to be a

model in data-informed decision making to

reduce the school’s overall environmental

footprint.

Congratulations on a job well done Florenceville

Elementary School!

Contact Us

The Gaia Project is very interested in supporting

waste reduction and other energy-related

initiatives at Florenceville Elementary School in

any that we can. The students, staff and

administration at Florenceville Elementary

School are leaders, and I look forward to seeing

what the school does next!

Miles Goff, Technical & Program Officer [email protected] www.thegaiaproject.ca 1 (506) 442-9030

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Table 1. Weight (kg) per sorting category, May 2014

Table 2. Weight (kg) per sorting category, October 2012

Appendix

Group Returnable

Drink Contain-ers (kg)

Milk Car-tons (kg)

Recyclable Plastics (kg)

Paper & Card-board (kg)

Compost (kg)

Gar-bage (kg)

Total (kg)

Falcons 0.0 0.3 0.2 0.3 1.1 0.3 2.2

Purple Falcons 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.6 0.3 2.4

Hardcore 0.0 0.2 0.1 0.2 1.4 1.6 3.6

Grade 3 Girls/ 0.0 0.3 0.1 0.6 0.4 0.6 2.0

Total 0.3 0.9 0.7 1.7 3.5 2.9 10.1

Sorting Class Daily (kg) Annual (kg)

Returnable Drink Containers 0.37 72

Metals 0.25 484

Recylable Plastics 2.48 739

Paper & Cardboard 3.79 739

Compost 8.81 1718

Garbage 3.12 608

Total 18.8 3670

Table 2. Weight (kg) per sorting category, October 2012

florenceville elementary school - waste audit summary from may 8th, 2014

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