Dutch Fork Elementary has growing appetite for reducing food waste

During a recent lunch at Dutch Fork Elementary School, fourth grader Madison Shipman walked among the tables, picking plastic forks and wrappers from her classmates’ trays. She put them in the black bucket she held labeled “LANDFILL.”

“We get the plastic stuff and everything the worms can’t eat,” she said.

Shipman is one of two class helpers that aides students in discerning what gets thrown in the trash and what doesn’t.

Plastic forks and wrappers? Landfill.

Half-eaten apples and leftover salad? Compost.

Water bottles and cans? Recycling.

Since implementing the sorting process in the cafeteria at the beginning of the school year, Dutch Fork Elementary, which is an environmental science magnet school, has reduced its trash from breakfast and lunch from 27 bags to one per day.

“The kids have learned that what would’ve before gone to a landfill and been completely useless can be used for something else,” said Amy Umberger, Dutch Fork’s resident scientist and compost coordinator.

A $7,000 Richland Recycles Grant pays for a hauling company to pick up the food scraps and drop them off at ReSoil, a nearby composting facility. Composted soil is then brought back for use in Dutch Fork’s garden.

Lessons on composting and recycling also are taught in the classroom. Field trips to the local landfill show students why reducing waste is important.

Americans waste enough food every day to fill a 90,000 seat football stadium, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

At Dutch Fork, “We develop kids who love the world we live in and want to take care of it,” principal Julius Scott said. In addition to enthusiasm for recycling and composting at school, parents tell Scott that their children are being more conscious of trash at home, too.

“It’s having an impact,” he said.

Financially, the school saves money on fewer trash bags and trash pickups.

Scott said he hopes more schools wil adopt similar waste reduction programs in the future.

“Right now we’re the only school the Midlands doing it,” he said. “Can you image every district did it?”

This story was originally published December 30, 2016 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Dutch Fork Elementary has growing appetite for reducing food waste."