Waste Audit Data
February 9 and 10, students volunteered to help complete two days worth of waste audits. The data collected from this audit gives Makayla an insight into what West Delaware students are throwing away in the cafeteria so that she can address the most concerning items. Beyond this use, this audit provides ‘before’ data that provides the opportunity to be reflected upon when another audit is done in the future to measure West Delaware’s progress.
Main Points:
Purpose of a Waste Audit
How Makayla and the volunteers sorted and calculated the waste
West Delaware can reduce waste by: composting (49% of trash) and properly recycling (15.26% recycling misplaced)
Milk and juice cartons make up the majority of the trash and need to be addressed
Report
Goal:
Analyze the amount (lbs) of compost, recycling, and trash that is thrown into the wrong receptacle. With a focus on the amount (lbs) of compost that is thrown in the trash.
Background:
West Delaware’s waste is serviced by Kluesner Sanitation, Manchester Iowa. The accepted recyclables listed below are from their sources.
Non-Recyclables—
Plastic bags, milk and juice cartons (unless rinsed and sorted), slick coated frozen food boxes, paper plates, paper cups, napkins, styrofoam, #6 plastic
Recyclables—
#1-#5 Plastics, paper towel cores, pop bottles, water bottles, magazines, catalogs, cardboard
Equation:
Weight(lbs) of (non-recyclables) from (trash) + weight(lbs) of (food waste) from (trash)
——————————————————————————————————————
Weight (lbs) of all (trash)
Procedure
The entirety of the trash and recycling collected from classrooms, lounges, and the cafeteria was collected. Before sorting the contents of the bag, a label of whether it was meant to be trash or recycling was placed on them. Each item was sorted into two piles: correctly place and incorrectly placed. For example, if a piece of paper was in a designated trash bag, the paper would go into the incorrectly placed pile. All recycling ended up into the same two piles of sorting. For the trash from the cafeteria, within the incorrectly place pile were two sub-piles: food waste (compostable and milk cartons (recyclable). If there was an item that the sorters were unsure of, online resources were used. Each separate pile was sorted, and the data recorded.
Data
Recycling Placement Accuracy
Trash Placement Accuracy
Observations and Actions
What Makayla has learned from this is that adding a compost system will drastically decrease the amount of waste that West Delaware sends to the landfill. Beyond composting, finding a way to recycle cartons should be addressed to decrease West Delaware’s waste.
Makayla also noticed that while sorting through the plastics from each lunch, a majority of those plastics are #6, which are not recyclable.
She will look into replacements for these plastics that are able to be recycled or composted
Milk cartons made up almost all of the trash from lunch.
She will contact Kluesner Sanitation to inquire about the ability and restrictions that they have in place for recycling cartons
The juice boxes make up the majority of recycling that was thrown in the trash.
She will place signs on the second breakfast cart and on recycling bins that juice boxes are recyclable
Cups from outside business for shakes/coffee are misplaced in trash when they are a #1-#5 Plastic
She will place signs on all of the recycling bins to remember to check the plastic number on the bottom as a reminder to be conscious
15.26% of the total recycling produced in two school days end up in the trash instead of the recycling
She will place small signs on the classroom walls that have a list of recyclables and non-recyclables