Sept 28—Inside the cafeteria at Lincoln Elementary School in Oakland, Calif., students fidgeted in line, waiting to flip the contents of their lunch trays into three separate bins. The first bin, labeled “recycling,” was for the milk cartons. Next was the trash bin where the sporks and plastic wrappers go. And last: the compost bin, for the day’s discard of grapes, carrots, barbecued chicken and buns.
At Lincoln and nearly 50 other Oakland schools, the custodians, nutrition staff and faculty have banded together to use lunchtime as an opportunity to teach students how to compost. Their collaborative efforts are part of the Oakland Unified School District’s Green Gloves Program, a custodian-initiated effort to reduce the amount of waste schools produce during lunch.