COMPOST NOW TOUR
TODAY we visited @compostnowga to see what happens to our school’s compost. We got to learn about the process of nutrient recycling (ie compositing ) and observe the differences in each stage of this process (which takes about 8-10 months!)
The food waste (and compostable waste) that we have saved from landfills (so far 32,000 lbs!!!!!) is being “recycled” into nutrient rich soil that we use in our thriving school garden. The kids loved climbing the mountains of compost and identifying and pulling out contaminants (plastic bags, foil, a toothbrush, produce stickers). They even found a stack of trays from our cafeteria!
Thank you COMPOST NOW GA for hosting us and working with us to recycle nutrients and keep our compostable waste out of landfills !
Cloud Dukes, our Compost Now connection, hanging with the kids/
Compost that has just arrived, we found contaminates in this bin : plastic gloves, plastic wrap, and a plastic to go cup top.
This is the nutrient rich soil, the result of composting - compost!
We found a stack of our compostable cafeteria trays!
Foil contamination!
More contamination the kids pulled out - a toothbrush, plastic wrapper, milk carton, plastic cup - did you know that the compost now team pulls out, by hand, items that cannot be composted ? That is a lot of work - we could help them out by keeping these items out of our bins!
Steam from the pile - steam is the byproduct of organisms breaking down organic matter (food and compostable waste) !
Examining the final product - compost, nutrient rich soil!!!!!!!!!!!!!