This week, our school conducted our first waste audit of the
year. We collected 24 hours of garbage and recycling and did a visual audit
using clear bags and visual estimation. We also weighed the garbage and
recorded all of our findings. All together we had 2 bags of garbage with a
total mass of 4.05 kg and 4 bags of recycling with a total mass of 3.2kg.
While we are doing a great job
overall, there were some BIG
problems. Some of the recycling was
contaminated because people are not emptying their juice boxes or milk
cartons. When you throw your juice box
in the blue bin, it must be emptied first and the straw must be thrown in the
garbage. Milk cartons must always be
rinsed out and emptied before going in the blue bin. One of our recycling bags even has to be
thrown in the garbage because of contamination.
There was liquid everywhere and we even found half a banana in this blue
bin. If we all do
our part, we can make sure that we are recycling properly 100% of the time.
