VIEW FROM THE KIRB | Composting waste and feeding minds
■ As members of Olympic View Elementary School’s Compost Crew, fifth-graders Jack (left) and Sam sort the lunchtime trash as part of the school’s efforts to compost waste and reduce garbage at the school. photo courtesy of Olympic View Elementary School
Students at Orca at Whitworth, a public alternative school at 5215 46th Ave. S., learn through a creative educational curriculum. Anthony Warner, garden and environmental science coordinator at Orca, has found ways to integrate sustainability methods into this education, and his students have already taken results from these lessons into the community around them.
Their spring plant sale, held May 9, offered shoppers a choice of approximately 1,500 organic seedlings and starts that students had grown in the school garden and greenhouse. Neighbors and area nurseries also donated native bushes and plant clippings. The sale raised $7,000 to fund Orca programs.
Additionally, Orca students donated plants to Hawthorne Elementary School, 4100 39th Ave. S., for creation of a garden. The Rainier Community Center and the Rainier Valley Food Bank also work in partnership with students and their garden toward sustainability and social change.
"We built the garden from scratch here," Warner explained.
The garden covers a playground area - specifically the one-time asphalt and wood chip-covered kindergarten playground on the Whitworth campus. Students water this garden entirely from a 9,000-gallon rain-water cistern located underground. The greenhouse uses passive solar technology, but Warner would like to see installation of solar panels that could collect energy for school use.
Middle-school students tend the garden as an elective, before the school day officially starts, and receive class credit. Additionally, students tend a school plot at nearby Hillman City P-Patch.
"Often projects become limited to what happens within the school building," Warner explained. Working among neighbors, also enthusiastic gardeners, allows students to apply their knowledge in a real world setting.
Warner believes Orca to be "the only school that will be composting lunchroom school bins into on-site worm bins."
As children learn reading, writing and arithmetic, they integrate it with knowledge about building a healthier future. As Warner explained, "We're really trying to act sustainably."
PRACTICING SUSTAINABILITY
Students at Olympic View Elementary School, 504 N.E. 95th St., also incorporate sustainability practices into their school day. There, 20 students in fourth- and fifth-grades take time from their lunch hour and recess to participate in the Compost Crew.
"It's pretty fun," allowed Compost Crew member Sam, "but not so fun when there is a bunch of syrup."
Sam and Jack, two fifth-grade students, work together on their assigned day to monitor both breakfast and lunch meals. They stand sentry over a series of trash cans - recyclables, compostable materials and trash - plus a can for liquids (for emptying leftover milk and juice) and two bins for unopened, trade-able packages, e.g. pudding cups. Crew members educate and guide younger students to correctly separate their meal waste.
As Jack explained, "It's exciting to be doing something for the environment."
This enthusiasm might be what led two parents, Ann Tracey and Sarah Ketchley (Jack's mother), to apply for Seattle Public Utilities' Waste Prevention and Recycling grant.
The funds enabled teachers Liz Devlin and Gail Blaine to spend time outside normal duties to develop the compost program. They helped students write skits for an assembly and make posters to educate and reach out to other students and parents.
"We don't require participation," Devlin explained. "We want to encourage civic participation among the students."
The Compost Crew also visited West Woodland Elementary School, which already has a compost program. One of their greatest allies at Olympic View has been custodial engineer Francie Fretheim, who previously worked at West Woodland. She hopes more parents volunteer to help oversee the Crew. She does do some oversight on her own because, as she admitted, the cause is "kind of contagious."
"Next year," Devlin explained, "we hope to reduce the amount of waste."
Each day, Crew members weigh the bio-bags of compost they've collected. This data will provide a standard for comparison next year. Already, according to Fretheim, school recycle bins are "fuller than ever," and the amount of school trash (non-recyclable, non-compostable) has been cut in half.
TALKING TRASH
Both Sam and Jack have learned about trash sorting. They explained the need to remove foil lids from plastic cups before recycling. Also, they pointed out, an unbitten apple, once selected, must be tossed in the compost bin, rather than placed in reuse bins, to avoid the spread of germs from the peel.
The boys also learned about packaging. The school district distributes some hot food in paper trays, lined with wax. The wax renders the paper un-recyclable. Sam voiced his wish that consumers help with composting "and for older business people," he advised, "make better packaging."
As our youths learn sustainable practices, they increase a general mindfulness we all can use to make wiser choices. Our community can listen to their counsel, aid their efforts and, best of all, benefit as they quickly grow and further influence the near future as the decision-makers.
Kirby Lindsay learned about community building growing up in Fremont. She welcomes your comments about Seattle communities at fremont@oz.net.
