Waste Audit

We went as a class and did a waste audit .These are the things that we found when we looked at our school's trash.We went and dumped trash on a tarp and put the trash into different pile so that we could tell what could have been recycled. We then weighed the items to tell the amount that had the most.
1. Classroom Trash

1. We got the trash from classrooms and the trash bins that are around our school so that we could do our experiment. Each bag that we had was given to separate groups to be sorted in to groups.

2.The next step was to weigh the trash to see what we were dealing with.
3. We dumped the trash into a mat so that we could the audit and so that we could understand what we were working with.

4. We sorted the trash in to different piles to be more efficient. We had 9 piles: Mixed papers, Newspapers, Plastic bottles#1 and#2, Other plastics, Aluminum and steel cans, Glass, Cardboard and paperboard, Other waste and the 9this food scraps & soiled paper.

5. We had to weigh the different piles so that we could we could find out how much each pile weighed and to get an exact amount of what we throw away.
Mixed papers:4lbs 60%
Newspapers:1.1lbs 10%
Plastic bottles:2.2lbs 30%
Other plastics:0 0%
Cans:0 lbs 0%
Glass:0 lbs 0%
Cardboard and paperboard:1lbs 10%
Other waste:2lbs 20%
Food scraps and soiled paper:2lbs 30%

In the survey we saw that a lot of the trash could have been put into the recycling to be used again. The classrooms could have the bins marked recycling and telling the students to work at being cleaner would do a lot. The students don't really Know about recycling and if they do then they don't care. The school officials need to get students better informed. The students could have composted the food scraps and the y could have reused some of the materials based on the Four R's.
Classes could get compost bins so that the food scraps can be recycled and the teachers can use the backs of paper for the printer.The amount of paper in school is a lot and in a way the school is contributing to the tearing down trees. The classes could start using computers so that the use of paper can decrease periodically. The school has a lot of things that can be recycled but without cooperation the students will continue to throw the items away.

Litter Survey

Students took pictures before lunch in separate areas of the school before and after lunch. The areas were in front of the school and in the quad. They also went to the grassy areas and the halls. The school was pretty much clean before school and then after there was a lot of trash everywhere. There was a lot of food waste and food wrappers. The before lunch pictures that I chose is the grassy areas so that the we could see the nature. The after pictures are the ones of grass at the end of lunch.There was a lot of litter where the students hang out and not really in the solitary areas.The pictures show how the school changes at lunch.
Before: After:

How I recycle

I use the four R's at a low level. I recycle bottles and reduce the need to buy things that I don't need. I work at a garden so I help things compose and that fits in with rot. I also reuse water bottles. I try not to throw everything away and sometime I don't but other times I do.

Information

My school is doing a 4R program and I'll explain what's up.This blog is called THS' Green Stars.This blog's main purpose is to give information on what is going on at THS.We currently have the recycling service but we need a lot more bins and stuff like that because the students still litter and throw away recyclable items.SLWRP is the program that we got when the Alameda County partnered with our school to help recycle.It is service learning waste reduction program that we call SLWRP.The 4R's are recycling, reuse, reduce and rot. The recycling is same as reuse meaning that that we use things more instead of throwing the items away. The rot means to compost and the reduce means to buy things you need or things that can be recycled.THS students need to recycle to make the world a better place.