Did you know that 87% (or 90 to 100 pounds) of lunch waste EVERYDAY at Hillside can be composted?
That means more than 16,500 pounds of waste EVERY YEAR can be diverted away from polluting incinerators and landfills!
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what is the Hillside Composting Project?
what is the Hillside Composting Project?
The goal of the Hillside Composting Project is to bring composting to Hillside. The initial focus of this project is to separate organic waste from trash in the cafeteria during the lunch period.
If this is successful, it will make it easier to introduce composting at the Middle and High school as these Hillsiders eventually graduate to the upper schools.
What has been done so far?
What has been done so far?
April 2023 - On Earth Day, in partnership with Hudson Compost Services, we diverted 102 lbs of organic waste away from landfills and polluting incinerators. If we assume that is the norm for any given school day and there are 180 school days in a year, that amounts for 18,360 lbs of waste that can be diverted away from incinerators and landfills.
September 2023 - A group of volunteers from Hastings Zero Waste toured the Springhurst Elementary school in Dobbs Ferry to learn about Springhurst's composting program. Springhurst has been composting since 2016 and also has an on-site compost processing station that feeds their school vegetable garden!
October 2023 - The Zero Waste team identified CRP Sanitation Services as a viable and cost-effective commercial food scrap pick up service for any composting program implemented in our district.
November 2023 - The school district implemented our recommendations and signed a contract with CRP for weekly food scrap pick up.
December 2023 - We launched Composting Fridays at Hillside.
The Zero Waste team collaborated with the Hillside STEAM teacher to educate students on composting and its benefits to the planet.
Zero Waste members, along with Hillside parents, volunteered every Friday during lunchtime to assist students with waste separation.
The team also partnered with the school cafeteria to switch to compostable trays and utensils and developed signs and infographics to streamline the waste separation system.
January 2024 to present - Composting Fridays still continues. Parent volunteer support has waned and instead the operation has been sustained by two dedicated community volunteers.
What's next?
What's next?
The students are mostly trained and we have identified several eager students who would be interested in becoming "compost keepers" and assist their peers during the lunch hour with waste separation. We already see this organically happening between the 4th grade lunch buddies and the kindergartners.
We believe Hillside is ready to rollout composting during all school days. However, for a successful rollout we still need an adult in the cafeteria to monitor operations till this becomes a fully ingrained habit among the student population.
We have had discussions with the school administration on hiring an individual to monitor the waste separation process during the lunch period. This position would be similar to the crossing guards i.e. for a few hours a day an individual would be at the waste stations at the Hillside cafeteria to help the students with waste separation. We estimate the salary for this position to be $10,000 to $12,000 for the entire school year. However, the school is not able to support this in the current budget.
Given the amazing progress we have made so far, stopping now would be a huge travesty. We need to keep going and we are looking for ways to fund this position in the 2024-2025 school year. We are exploring applying for a grant either through the Hastings Education Foundation or through the Mayor's HoH Youth Climate Action Fund.
We also want to raise awareness of this project and garner community support for it.
What can you do?
What can you do?
Your support matters. The more people that show that they care about this initiative the more likely we will find ways to fund it. By submitting the form below, you are expressing support for this project. Any Hastings resident (including students) is welcome to express support for this project by adding their name to the form below.
Compost Bin
Trash Bin
Hillsiders composting
The final haul. 87% of the lunch waste was compostable!
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