April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
ALL SAINTS CATHOLIC ACADEMY, ALBANY
ASCA students pile on for composting program
ASCA students pile on for composting program
ASCA began composting last April. Through Albany-based Empire Zero Waste, the school is able to sustain a student-run composting program that reduces the school's overall waste.
"So much of our children's food at lunchtime was going into the garbage," said Traci Johnson, principal. "We have literally gone from four garbage cans to one, and we have 192 students."
Now, ASCA students are taught how to separate their garbage, putting food scraps into the Empire Zero bins that the company picks up later.
"It helps save the Earth," Jade explained. "It helps feed the worms. They put it in the soil for the worms to eat, so the worms can live and help people plant in the garden."
Kids can help
Empire Zero takes ASCA's bins to a local composting facility and provides new bins to be filled, under the supervision of the student helpers, known as the "Green Team."
Jade learned about composting with her classmates on the first day of school. Third-grade teacher Joe McGrath said he enjoys teaching students about "giving up their time in order to help the environment: With composting, you're donating time. They can help the environment [in a way] that doesn't involve donating money."
Jade told The Evangelist that she's never examined the composting process up close. She tries not to think about what happens after the food scraps go in the bucket: "I'm scared of worms. I like seeing them and watching them crawl around; I just hate when they crawl on me."
Members of ASCA's "green team" like Jade stand by the garbage and composting bins during lunch periods, scraping off trays for students who need help sorting their waste. Although it's often a fun job, Jade said it can get a bit messy: "On hotdog day, it's the horrible-est day you could ever imagine. Some of the kids wave their applesauce around and it gets on people."
Already experts
Some students don't like to miss out on recess to help with the composting, though Jade said she doesn't mind. She did complain that some fellow students don't let the Green Team help them, and end up putting the wrong garbage in the composting bins.
"They'll forget to take straws out of their milk," she noted. "I know where to put the stuff and I don't put it in the wrong place. The little kids watch where I put it sometimes, so then they learn."
The goal of ASCA's composting "is to reduce our carbon footprint," said Ms. Johnson. "It's growing into the pope's call to protect the Earth."
One's carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide and methane (greenhouse gases) produced by an individual or institution. Students like ASCA's have learned about people's pollution of the environment, which causes climate change -- and that carbon footprints can be reduced by decreasing the amount of energy people use or waste they produce.
Smaller footprints
Composting is one way to slightly reduce the amount of carbon emitted into the environment.
Jade thinks that more adults should be educated about how important composting is for the environment. "Then we won't have so much trash to throw away all the time and we won't have to keep getting new bags to throw stuff away in," she said.
ASCA has adopted other efforts of being more environmentally friendly, too, including a push for recycling and switching lunch trays from Styrofoam to reusable plastic. The school has also suggested that only younger students use drinking straws in their milk.
"We're just trying to make small changes," said Ms. Johnson.
Jade claims that there are a lot of things she likes about composting, from scraping trays to helping the environment. But her favorite part is "helping the little kids. Sometimes if they need help opening their milk, we'll do that."[[In-content Ad]]
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