Signs mark which bins get organic material for composting
At Gilman School, it used to be that boys wolfed down their lunch, tossed their wrappers, containers, and leftovers into the trash and went out to play. Today it’s a different story.
Lunch is served on real plates, and eaten with real silverware. After the meal, students separate what is left on their tray into appropriate containers. Food scraps, milk cartons and napkins go in the compost container, juice cups and plastic are placed in the recycling bin and the rest, about 1% of the total, is trash. This composting effort is the first of its kind at a private school in the Baltimore area.
Faculty and students get the hang of the composting program.
Composting with Waste Neutral
Rest assured the organic waste is not being cultivated on the Roland Avenue campus. It is hauled away by Waste Neutral, a local company that collects and composts organic waste in an effort to divert needless waste from our landfills.
According to Keith Losoya of Waste Neutral, Gilman is the first school in the area to implement a commercial-scale, food waste collection for composting. While some schools have tried it on a small-scale, project basis, Gilman is having all of its organic waste composted.
Educating the Community
Sean Furlong, Gilman's Director of Finance and Operations has been working with a team of students, faculty, and staff to expand the school's sustainability efforts across campus. The composting is perhaps their biggest project to date. The project not only involves changing behavior, but it's great material for environmental science curriculum.
"The first piece to the education has been in the dining hall," Furlong explains. "We had a number of students and teachers involved in explaining to students (and teachers) what should go into the composting bin (vs. trash or plastic/bottle recycling containers). This took a while for the folks to get used to, but we were told we did an excellent job in making sure the correct materials got into the composting bin."
Other education efforts include periodic reports to the school on the amount of food waste they are generating; a mini compost model on display in the dining hall to show how, overtime, composting works; and student trips to the actual location where the food waste is taken.
Photos courtesy of Gilman School
Waste as a valuable resource
Throughout the year, as Waste Neutral collects Gilman's organic waste for composting, the school collects credits based on the volume. When the school is ready to cash in their credits, their waste returns to Gilman as "black gold," high quality dirt that will be used for campus plantings.
The Gilman community is learning many lessons by composting their organic waste, including the fact that it is a valuable resource. While the numbers have yet to be crunched, the school already sees the value in composting program to the campus, the community and the earth.
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