Schools
WJHS Students Keep Lunches Out of Landfills
The school's composting challenge collected 160 pounds of organic waste.
Saima Abbasi, PTO environmental committee chair, organized a very successful composting challenge at Wilmette Junior High School on Feb. 27.
After eating, students separated compostable items from their lunches into compost bins. This meant anything that came from something that had once been alive, such as food and paper products. Plastic bottles and plastic and other plastic went into recycle bins. The challenge was to see just how much from two lunch periods could be kept out of the garbage and subsequently, out of a landfill though composting and recycling. The project was funded by Go Green Wilmette.
Some facts about the challenge:
- Participants included approximately 800 students, principal Dave Palzet and faculty members Kelly Jackson and Derik Williams.
- 160 pounds of organic waste was collected and diverted from a landfill.
- Erlene Howard, owner of Collective Resource, Inc. was at the cafeteria to help volunteers set up the collecting bins and guided students to separate organic waste for composting.
- Organic waste was hauled away by Collective Resource to a licensed site to be composted.
If you are a WJHS parent, talk to your children about the composting activity at school and its benefits. Remind them to check out the bulletin board outside the cafeteria door to learn more about the process of composting.
Thank you to Shyamala Gupta and Marcia Srivastava and the Go Green Wilmette Team who were at the cafeteria helping students with compostable waste sorting!
“This event was very well organized and went off without a hitch, thanks to organizer Saima Abbasi," said Go Green Wilmette president Beth Drucker.
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Anyone who wishes to talk further with Erlene Howard about her composting business can catch her at “Going Green Matters,” Go Green Wilmette’s sixth annual environmental fair from 1-5 p.m. Sunday, March 11 at the Woman’s Club of Wilmette. Admission is free and exhibits are many. Be sure to stop by and bring your family. There is something for everyone.
