Gagetown School: Waste Audit Summary -...
-
Upload
duongkhanh -
Category
Documents
-
view
214 -
download
0
Transcript of Gagetown School: Waste Audit Summary -...
Gagetown School:
Waste Audit Summary October 23, 2012
The Gaia Project 270 Rookwood Ave Fredericton, NB E3B 2M2 1 (877) 442-4136 www.thegaiaproject.ca [email protected]
s
Gagetown School: Waste Audit Summary
A summary of the results from the waste audit conducted on October 23rd, 2012.
Copyright © 2012 The Gaia Project. Last updated on October 23rd, 2012.
Commercial reproduction of The Gaia Project materials is prohibited without prior written permission
The Gaia Project is a charitable organization dedicated to providing project based learning opportunities 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
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.
2. Economic Assessments – We expect students to be able to assess the cost effectiveness of their so-
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
projects. This means looking at their projects from cradle to grave, as opposed to just examining the
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 (877) 442-4136 [email protected]
The Gaia Project is supported by donations and grants from:
Irving Oil TD Friends of the Environment Foundation The McCain Foundation The R. Howard Webster Foundation Dillon Consulting Airfire Telephone and Data Stantec New Brunswick Department of Environment Environmental Trust Fund NSERC/CRSNG Front Cover Credits Wheelie Bins—Caledonia Lane photo by Geof Wilson under a Creative Commons BY-ND 2.0 Licence
© The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca
© The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca
1 W
aste
Au
dit S
um
mary
Overview
The Gaia Project collaborated with Mrs.
Alexandra Stewart-Francis’ kindergarten class
to audit the waste at Gagetown School on
October 23rd, 2012. The process, results, and
recommendations are detailed herein.
The Process
The goal of the waste audit was to determine
the type and amount of waste produced by the
school. This data will be used to help make
measurable and impactful reductions in waste
at the school, as part of an effort to make the
school more sustainable.
The Gaia Project and students started off the
morning discussing waste, and the waste
hierarchy —reduce, reuse and recycle—and
why each of these are important, and how they
might relate to the waste audit we were
planning.
Students then decided on 5 sorting categories
based on the types of waste they thought we
might find at the school.
Sorting classes We decided on 5 sorting classes:
Drink containers (milk cartons, juice
boxes)
Plastics
Paper
Compost
Garbage
Collecting the Garbage The custodial staff collected all of the garbage
at the school on October 22nd.
Weighing and Sorting After deciding on our 5 sorting classes, students
broke up into 3 groups. Gloves were provided
to all students along with a safety orientation.
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.
Groups then opened the bags and sorted its
contents.
October 22nd’s waste at Gagetown School
Gloved and ready for sorting
2
Th
e G
aia
Pro
jec
t
© The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca
We subsequently weighed the contents of each
sorting category at the end of the day. 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 five sorting categories.
Results
The weight from each sorting category (our raw
data) in Table 1 in the Appendix.
The total weight of waste by category can be
seen in the pie chart below.
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.
Using the assumption of 188 school days a year,
the annual projections can be found in Table 2
in the Appendix. This is a very rough estimate of
1100 kg of waste produced at the school
annually.
Summary
Through the process of measuring how much
and what type of waste Gagetown School
produces, it was discovered that:
27% of the waste was compostable
material
36% of the examine waste was paper
12% of the waste was returnable or
recyclable drink containers like milk
cartons, or juice boxes
21% was plastics
4% of the waste was actual garbage that
needed to be there.
Compost Twenty-seven percent (27%) of the sorted
waste was compostable material.
Mrs. Francis’ class currently composts, and
there are composters on school grounds. The
class was excited about the potential to help
Hard at work sorting waste
The data
12%
27%
21%
36%
4%
Gagetown School: Waste Types
Drink Containers
Compost
Plastics
Paper
Garbage
© The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca
3 W
aste
Au
dit S
um
mary
other classes start composting, and would like
to make a video. The Gaia Project provided the
school a Flip Video Camera to be able to help
with the making of a video.
Compost is also a potential source of revenue
for students and the school. There is also the
potential for students to sell this compost at
the end of the year to parents and members of
the community.
Paper Approximately one third of the waste was
paper (36%). Students pointed out that
Mondays is pizza day, and that at the moment,
pizza boxes are going into the garbage rather
than being recycled.
We discussed the potential for setting up pizza
box recycling on Mondays.
Drink Containers The school appears to be doing a good job of
recycling drink containers—this category made
up only 12% of the garbage.
In future waste audits, we could also potentially
examine the recycling bins as well as the
garbage to be able to confirm that returnable
drink containers are ending up in the proper
recycling bins.
Students observed that a lot of the drink
containers were milk cartons. Through
discussion, the potential for recycling milk
cartons was raised. For this to begin at the
school, students could work on identifying a
system for milk carton recycling including bins,
and identifying who would bring them to a
recycling facility, or have them picked up at the
school.
Plastics 21% of the examined was plastics. Students
decided to focus efforts on the three previously
described categories for reducing waste, at this
time.
Garbage Only 4% of the examined waste actually needed
to be there! The school is already doing a good
job of eliminating waste coming to the school,
Happy with the results
All sorted
Done!
4
Th
e G
aia
Pro
jec
t
© The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca
though efforts like existing compost and
recycling programs, as well as encouraging
students to bring reusable containers.
Perhaps over the next couple of years, the
school could reduce their waste even more!
Summary
Gagetown School’s kindergarten students have
set at their waste reduction goals the following
three points:
Make a composting video to encourage/
show other classes at the school the how
and why of composting
Find a way to recycle pizza boxes on
Monday
Develop a system to recycle milk cartons
at the school
The Gaia Project is available anytime to help in
implementing these initatives, and to return to
the school in the spring for a follow-up waste
audit.
Contact Us
If you would like more information, we would
be happy to chat. Please get in touch.
Vanessa Paesani, Program Delivery Officer [email protected] Office: 1 (877) 442-4136 x 2 Cell: 1 (506) 471-5566
Mrs. Francis’ kindergarten class
© The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca
1 W
aste
Au
dit S
um
mary
Table 1. Weight (kg) per sorting category
Table 2. Estimated annual weight (kg) per sorting class
Appendix
Group Drink Contain-
ers (kg) Compost
(kg) Plastics
(kg) Paper (kg)
Garbage (kg)
Total (kg)
1 0.1 0.3 0.3 0.9 0.1 1.6
2 0.2 0.8 0.4 0.5 0.1 2.0
3 0.3 0.3 0.5 0.5 0.0 1.5
Total 0.6 1.4 1.1 1.8 0.2 5.1
Sorting Class Daily (kg) Annual (kg)
Drink Containers 0.62 121
Compost 1.37 207
Plastics 1.06 357
Paper 1.83 357
Garbage 0.2 40
Total 5.1 1082