Suffield Sustainability Council (SSC) members Beatrice Williams, Sarah Swenson, and Heidi Storey from the High School spent the morning teaching K-2 students about composting. The students created a small composter to place in their classroom window to watch food break down. In the process, they learned about forming a hypothesis and the importance of observations in science.
The Suffield Sustainability Council (SSC), a group of Suffield High School students dedicated to making environmentally positive changes in our area, is thrilled to announce that Spaulding Elementary School has implemented a composting program! SSC had the pleasure of working alongside Suffield First Selectman Colin Moll, Sustainable Suffield, Spaulding Elementary staff members, and USA Recycling in order to accomplish this feat. After working towards establishing composting for over a decade, the implementation at both SHS and Spaulding is a huge achievement for SSC. We are incredibly grateful for this success and to be able to share it with our partners!
The initial composting rollout at Spaulding took place on Monday, November 13th. The K-2 students were given the hands-on opportunity to look at and explore a USA Recycling truck (the kids were very enthusiastic about honking the horn). SSC students were present at Spaulding that day to lead the students in a food sorting activity with snacks provided by Sustainable Suffield (which the kids were also excited about, of course). The purpose of this activity was to teach kids the difference between what is compostable, recyclable, and what can be thrown in the trash, with a colored bin for each category. The young students quickly picked up the lesson, and eagerly placed their leftovers and trash into the correct bin. We could not have hoped for a more successful rollout!
Since the rollout, Spaulding Elementary has been diligently composting all of their food scraps. During December alone, Spaulding’s first full month actively composting, our Spaulding Stars composted 1,440 pounds of food waste! This is equivalent to 8.9 saplings grown for ten years or 0.644 acres of forest. If Spaulding continues to compost their food at this rate, over 7500 lbs of food waste will be composted by the end of the 2023-2024 school year. That’s 7500+ lbs of food waste that is not rotting in a landfill. The incredible results from the Spaulding rollout are so exciting and impactful because all food waste that rots away in a landfill releases methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas that is around 30x more potent than carbon dioxide. This composted food waste will be used to create electricity and turn a waste stream item into something valuable. The amount of waste being diverted through Spaulding’s composting efforts, already, is remarkable. This rollout is just one way SSC is reducing the impacts of global warming on our Earth.
In order to sustain the enthusiasm about composting, SSC students visited Spaulding again on Tuesday, December 19th to lead all K-2 classrooms in a ‘build your own composter’ activity. Each SSC member went to a classroom where they re-affirmed what is and isn’t compostable, and very simply explained some of the science behind composting, and gave the students a hands-on opportunity to help build a mini composter for their classroom (simply a 2 liter soda bottle filled with soil and various compostable and non-compostable items, such as orange peels, fruit snacks, plastic spoons, etc). The purpose of this activity was to show kids firsthand how ‘organic’ compostable items break down into the soil, while ‘inorganics’ (i.e., plastic materials) do not, as well as to introduce students to the concept of science and experiments. Again, all of the kids were super eager to help build the composter, by scooping dirt and/or placing food items into it.
Overall, SSC was absolutely blown away by how much, especially the 2nd graders, already knew about the composting process. We are incredibly proud of our Spaulding students for their eagerness to learn and participate in this brand-new way of handling food!
After such a resounding success at Spaulding, SSC plans to begin working towards implementing composting at McAlister Intermediate School, with the long-term goal of establishing district wide composting, in order to greatly reduce our schools’ greenhouse gas output.