Local Bright Spot
Schools Aim to Ditch the Dumpster
The Windward Zero Waste School Hui is reducing waste, restoring the soil, and training the next generation in the mindset of resource recovery.
The Hui is a partnership between five schools on Windward O‘ahu, including Ka‘ōhao Elementary Public Charter School (formerly Lanikai Elementary), Ka‘elepulu Elementary, Kainalu Elementary, Enchanted Lake Elementary, and Kailua Intermediate School. It teaches school children how to use simple, natural methods, such as hot composting (for dairy products) and decomposition using worms (for fruits, vegetables, and grains).
“We reduce the dumpster volume by—on average—80 to 90 percent at every school we’re in,” says the group’s co-founder and coordinator, Mindy Jaffe, who has been a force behind the program for 15 years, and has earned two national awards by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Here’s how: on Day One at a school, the group eliminates all food and milk from going into the dumpster, immediately avoiding the need for a daily emptying of the trash. Within a year or so, all food, paper, cardboard, and green waste is also removed from the waste stream. Everything is composted instead, and “What was a stinking, overflowing dumpster is now virtually empty,” says Jaffe.
In 2019, for example, the group diverted 56.2 tons of resources out of the waste stream at its five schools. This decreases the amount of methane-producing gas in landfills and produces a saleable resource: nutrient-rich soil amendments, which can be used in gardens and farms. Think of the prospective of all 293 schools in Hawai‘i’s public school system participating.
The Hui would like to add Kailua Elementary to the first cohort and create a second “pod” of schools including Maunawili Elementary, Waimānalo Elementary/Intermediate, and Blanche Pope Elementary. “Within the next couple of years, we want to bring in Olomana School (correctional, grades 6-12), Kailua High and Kalāheo High, with a focus on developing a vocational track. If our vision for this project manifests, there will be plenty of job opportunities for trained, certified Resource Recovery Specialists in the coming decades,” says Jaffe.
In 2018, House Bill 2025 provided $300,000 for zero-waste programs at schools. However, in July of 2019, the DOE awarded $285,000 to a private engineering firm and none of the schools received funding, putting Windward Zero Waste School Hui in serious jeopardy.
Photos courtesy of Rafael Bergstrom, Windward Zero Waste School Hui, Pixabay, Li Yang on Unsplash.