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Community composting at Gordon

One family's experience

above: key ingredients in home composting include veggie scraps, a good collection bucket, and participation from the whole family

This fall, Gordon began hosting a drop off site for families who want to compost food scraps they generate at home.

How is it going? Here’s one family’s experience:

Our family enrolled in the community compost bin at Gordon and it removes between fifteen to thirty pounds of waste (yes, we weighed it!) from our landfill-bound trash each week!

How we do it:

We put a five-gallon Home Depot bucket next to our trash pail and a smaller “transitional” bucket right next to our sink. 

We find the counter-height bucket most convenient for real time waste collection - we can empty plates and the cutting board scraps into the smaller bin while we are in the middle of food prep action. After we finish our activity and enter final clean-up mode, we move the contents of the small bucket to the larger bucket on the floor.

We also have small buckets in our bathrooms to capture our compostable bathroom materials, like our biodegradable floss and flossers, toilet paper rolls, cotton swabs, etc. I transfer those items to our Home Depot bucket once a week. We found some small bins that hang off of our towel racks. This way it is in the kids’ line of vision and also very separate from our other trash bins so we don’t accidentally contaminate our compostables.

We try to take our compost to the community collection bin at Gordon once a week; however, as the weather get warmer and fruit flies return, I imagine we will want to drop two or even three times a week.

Our tips and lessons learned

• We have a piece of cardboard hanging on the side of our fridge that we use to collect the labels on fruits and veggies. I located it where I like to chop veggies, so it has become choreographed into our routine, i.e. pull off sticker, place on board, chop fruit.

• Plan to arrive at Gordon early for drop off! I recommend 7:50-7:55. Many pluses - kids are on-time and you can zip in and out of the parking lot to drop compostables.

• When in doubt… ask the company… or, throw it out in a pinch. We have been composting at home for about seven years and yet we still get tricked every once in a while by an item. Some things look compostable (or might even be compostable) but they can’t go into the bin due to rule that are specific and important to the company. Also, some items say they are compostable but they might not be. Some items might not say they are compostable but they are! Once you find your brands, materials, and personal rhythm – it is super easy. And most of it is just common sense stuff.
 
•  Tell your friends!! Gordon or not, there are so many people out there trying to get composting started in their communities, and spreading information on how easy it is and how big the reward can be is super helpful. Maybe we can challenge each other to get two friends composting! This is one of those good things that can spread quickly!

 

Families interested in participating in on-campus composting can learn more at www.gordonschool.org/compost.

April 22nd is Earth Day, and Gordon is celebrating throughout the month.

The eclipse on Monday helped us all remember our place in the universe, and there are two community events every family is invited to participate in:

Community Garden Work Day
Saturday, April 13th, 9am to noon

Sixth grade clothing swap
Donation collection (lightly used, Gordon-child sized): April 15th to 24th in the Commons
Swap: April 26th, 3:30 to 5:30pm, and April 27th, 9am to noon

And every week, composting is happening in the dining hall, students are caring for the earth in the gardens, and Mr. Cicatiello is leading bike-to-school on Tuesdays and Thursdays (details at www.gordonschool.org/bridge)

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