CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Teaching kids to compost their leftover lunch can be a little sloppy.
Students at Elizabeth Lane Elementary recently began learning about, and practicing, composting as school officials helped them dump food scraps in one bin and trash in another.
Inevitably, some of it ends up on the floor, especially if there’s sauce involved.
“Some days are a little messier than others,” said Christy Davis, Elizabeth Lane Elementary School cafeteria manager, with a laugh.
The mess is a small price to pay for a program that officials hope will keep thousands of pounds of food waste away from the landfill, and instill in children lifelong habits.
Elizabeth Lane is the 15th school in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools system to join a pilot program that began two years ago, said Derrick Harris, environmental supervisor for Mecklenburg County Solid Waste. The county began the food waste diversion program after a 2012 study suggested that food waste was a leading component of CMS waste.
On average, a student produces about one pound of food waste a week, Harris said. CMS has more than 144,000 students in 164 schools.
“Hopefully, if we can show a reduction in the amount of waste that’s being disposed of, they’ll take it system-wide,” Harris said.
Students are asked to separate their leftover food and dump it in a special bin lined with a green plastic bag. Schools can have one bin for each day of the week, and at the end of lunch the bag is tied off and a new bin is rolled in.
The food waste at all 15 schools is picked up at least once weekly by Earth Farms Organics, which makes compost and topsoil products at a farm in Dallas, N.C.
Earth Farms Organics President Jim Lanier said CMS approached him about collecting the food waste.