salisbury regional elementary school - waste audit summary of november 20th 2013

8/11/2019 Salisbury Regional Elementary School - Waste Audit Summary of November 20th 2013

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Salisbury Regiona

Elementary

School:Waste Audit

Summary

November 20th, 2013

The Gaia Project

270 Rookwood Ave

Fredericton, NB

E3B 2M2

1 (506) 442-9030

www.thegaiaproject.ca

[email protected]


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Salisbury Regional Elementary School: Waste Audit Summary

A summary of the results from the waste audit conducted on November 20th, 2013.

Copyright 2013 The Gaia Project. Last updated on November 25th, 2013.

Commercial reproducon of The Gaia Project materials is prohibited without prior wrien permission.

The Gaia Project is a charitable organizaon dedicated to providing project-based learning opportunies in

the areas of energy, environment and sustainable engineering.

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

realisc environmentalism.

1. Data-Informed Decisions We want students to be able to explain why, and quanfy the eect of

each decision they made along the way to their nal soluon.

2.

Economic Assessments We expect students to be able to assess the cost eecveness of their so-

luons, and be able to opmize their projects with limited budgets.

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

projects. This means looking at their projects from cradle to grave, as opposed to just examining the

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

stake.

For more informaon, please visit www.thegaiaproject.ca

The Gaia Project

270 Rookwood Ave

Fredericton, NB

E3B 2M2

Canada

1 (506) 442-9030

[email protected]

The Gaia Project is supported by donaons and grants from:

NB Power

EcoAcon Community Funding ProgramEnvironment Canada

Environmental Trust FundGovernment of New Brunswick

Saint John Energy

The McCain Foundaon

The Harrison McCain Foundaon

PromoScience ProgramNaonal Science and Engineering Research Council

Front Cover Credits

Wheelie BinsCaledonia Lane photo by Geof Wilson under a Creave Commons BY-ND 2.0 Licence

The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca


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WasteAuditSummary

Overview

The Gaia Project collaborated with Grade 4

students at Salisbury Regional Elementary

School to conduct a waste audit of the schools

dry waste on the aernoon of November 20th,

2013. The process, results, and

recommendaons are detailed herein.

The Process

As part of the waste audit on Wednesday,

November 20th, The Gaia Project and Salisbury

Regional Elementary students briey discussed

energy, consumpon and the waste hierarchy

reduce, reuse and recycleand why each ofthese are important, and how they might relate

to the waste audit that day. We discussed what

kinds of things would typically be found in

classroom garbage cans, and used this

discussion to decide on sorng classes in which

to separate the waste.

Sorting classes

We decided on 4 sorng classes:

Recyclable plascs & drink containers

Paper

Compost

Garbage

Collecting the Garbage

Students and teachers collected their

classrooms dry waste for either 2 or 3 days

before the day of the audit.

Students were divided into groups based on

their classrooms, and gloves were provided to

all students along with a safety orientaon.Groups then opened the bags and sorted its

contents.

We subsequently weighed the contents of each

sorng category at the end of each sorng

session. 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 six sorng

classes. The results are detailed below.

Results

You can nd the actual weight from each

sorng class (raw data) in Table 1 in the


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Appendix. The total percentage of waste by

category is pictured in Graph 1.

Finally, the amount of waste collected and

sorted into each category has been projected

forward to provide an esmate of waste

produced annually. Using the assumpon of

195 school days a year, the annual projected

amount of total dry waste produced by these

grade 4 classrooms is 420 kg.

Summary

Through the process of measuring how much

and what type of dry waste is produced in the

Grade 4 classrooms at Salisbury Regional

Elementary School, was discovered that (Graph

1):

45% of the waste was recyclable plascs

and drink containers (including drink

containers that can be redeemed for a

refund)

38% was recyclable paper

8% was compost

Only 9% of the waste was actual garbage

that needed to be there.

Students agreed that it was great that only 8%

of the waste in the dry garbage was compost or

wet waste.

If we found ways to divert all of the recyclable/

returnable/compostable materials, grade 4

classrooms at Salisbury Elementary Schoolcould reduce their waste by 380 kg per year,

reducing the total amount of waste produced at

in the grade 4 classrooms dry waste to 40 kg,

or by 91%.

Recyclable Plastics & Drink

Containers

This category represented the largest poron

of the dry waste in grade 4 classrooms. This

category include refundable drink containers,

for which no recycling program currently exists.

One of the parents assisng with the waste

audit suggested that she would be available to

help implement a recycling program for drink

containers to ensure that the refunds would go

back to the school.

Paper and Cardboard

Paper represented 38% of the total dry waste

during the audit period. Students suggested

that a way to reduce this amount might be to

encourage students to reuse their paper, and to

recycle for cras and other purposes.

Graph 1. Salisbury Elementary Waste AuditNovember

20th, 2013


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WasteAuditSummary

Compostable Material

Eight percent (8%) of the dry waste sorted was

compostable material. Decreasing this amount

to zero would increase the recycling eciency

of items once they arrive at the solid waste

commission for sorng.

To ensure that students were placing dry & wet

waste in their appropriate containers, students

suggested frequent reminders of what types of

waste go into each bin.

Garbage

Only 9% of the waste we examined actually

needed to go into the garbage. Reducing the

total amount of garbage by encouragingstudents to reduce and reuse could decrease

the waste produce in the dry waste by grade 4

classrooms to 40 kg annually.

One-Bag Challenge

The Gaia Project is examining the possibility of

facilitang a One-Bag Challenge compeon for

elementary schools across the province in

Spring 2014, to coincide with Earth Week. The

goal of this day would be to have the school

produce one bag (or less!) of garbage in the

enre day. The One-Bag Challenge allows the

students and sta to have a strong visual target

to aim for, reinforcing the recycling behaviours.

This could be accomplished by:

Establishing a single day (or week) that is

designated as the challenge day or week.

In the days or weeks preceding the event,

students can provide informaon

sessions / material to their classmates

and their parents about the challenge.

Allow students and sta to present ideas

on how to achieve the one-bag challenge

goal.

Use recyclable containers to hold

your food

Only taking food to school you will

eat

The One-Bag Challenge could be in conjuncon

with a school picnic or other school events.

Please let us know if you would be interested in

parcipang.


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Contact Us

I would be happy to discuss anything in this

report, and work with Salisbury Regional

Elementary School in implemenng any

recommendaons coming out of this audit. I look

forward to working with you further.

Many thanks,

Vanessa PaesaniExecuve Director

The Gaia Project

270 Rookwood Ave

Fredericton, NB

E3B 2M2

1 (506) 442-9054

[email protected]


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WasteAuditSummary

Appendix

Table 2: Summary of totals for audit period, and projecons of waste producon for full year based

on 195 school days per year (esmated annual results)

Table 1: Raw data collected by students showing waste categories, locaons and weights

GroupRecyclable Plasc

& Drink Containers

(kg)

Paper (kg) Compost (kg) Garbage (kg)Total

(kg)

4 Killam 1.5 0.1 0.1 0.1 1.8

4 Laughlin 0.2 1.0 0.2 0.1 1.5

4 Shannahan 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.3 0.6

4 S 1.1 1.1 0.2 0.1 2.4

Total 2.9 2.5 0.5 0.6 6.4

Sorng Category Daily (kg) Annual (kg)

Recyclable Plasc & Drink Containers 2.9 185

Paper & Cardboard 2.5 160

Compost 0.5 35

Garbage 0.6 40

Total

6.4

420

salisbury regional elementary school - waste audit summary of november 20th 2013

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