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Composting

USDA Food Waste Grant - Composting in Cafeterias

What is composting?

Composting is nature’s method of disposing of food waste. Composting breaks down organic waste using natural processes. This avoids the landfill and allows food scraps and other organic waste to re-enter the ecosystem as nutrient-rich compost materials. This compost can then be used as an all-natural and effective fertilizer.

Why is it important?

Environment

Composting is nature’s method of disposing of food waste. Composting breaks down organic waste using natural processes. This avoids the landfill and allows food scraps and other organic waste to re-enter the ecosystem as nutrient-rich compost materials. This compost can then be used as an all-natural and effective fertilizer.

Money

OCPS pays for every trash pickup on our sites. Filling up trash cans with food waste means more money spent hauling that food waste away. Instead, this food waste can be re-used on-site or taken away to become compost. This saves on trash removal fees and allows food scraps to take on a new life as compost – an economically-beneficial byproduct.

Education 

Composting can be incorporated into many different lesson plans and educational opportunities. The process of composting involves biological and chemical processes. The act of composting involves counting and calculating quantities (emissions, waste, containers, etc) the environment, ecosystems, food chains, and can be linked to gardening. The application of composting can be a service or field trip opportunity to expose students to ideas outside the classroom environment, such as businesses, industrial processes, nature, and agriculture.

How to Compost with OCPS

Click here to view an Elementary School video tutorial from O-Town Compost.

Click here to view a Middle/High School video tutorial from O-Town Compost.

Click here to view a video tutorial on how to fit the biodegradable green bags onto the composting bins. 

OCPS is currently exploring a composting pilot at several schools, in partnership with a commercial composter, O-Town. These pilot schools will have compost collection areas in cafeterias and kitchens, maintained by OCPS FNS and Custodial staff, with the help of engaged teachers and administrators. O-Town will collect bags of organic waste from these schools on a regular schedule and take them to facilities for composting. Participating schools are provided with compost collection bins and liners.

What is Compostable?

Click here to view O-Town Compost's graphic or see below for examples.

Compostable in OCPS Cafeterias:

  • All foods and plants
  • Fruit and vegetable scraps 
  • Starchy foods like bread, rice, pasta
  • Dairy products like cheese and eggs
  • Meats and meat substitutes 
  • Snack/processed foods like crackers, chips, etc.

 

NOT Compostable in OCPS Cafeterias:

  • Plastic
  • Excessive liquids (large amounts of milk, juice, etc.)
  • Metal
  • Glass
  • Rubber
  • Fruit stickers
  • Latex gloves
  • Grease and oils
  • Wax coated paper
  • Parsley ties
  • Pet waste 

Resources

Integrated Curriculum
Are you looking for ways to bring composting into your teaching? Please see Composting Integrated Curriculum Tool Kit.zip to enrich your lessons today while creating a brighter future for tomorrow. 

School announcement script (transcribed from WWF partner school in Wisconsin): 

“We are going to start a composting program here at [school name here]. This is something very important because in the whole district, we are one of [21] schools that get this honor. And, if we do well, other schools will get to start composting, too! Let us tell you some great facts about composting. You can put ANY solid food waste, like meat and cooked food, into the green compost bin. And, it will supply nutrients for other plants to grow. Thanks for doing your part to compost leftover food!”

Contact Sustainability@ocps.net for signage or to invite a sustainability coordinator to your site.

Best practices:

  • Providing a lunch monitor for the bins. These can be an adult staff member or even student volunteers. This is best done for the first week or two of each semester to help remind students how to compost and reduce contamination.
  • Clear signage and separate areas for compostable materials help avoid confusion and contamination

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  • OCPS currently is piloting composting with O-Town. If your school is not part of this program, reach out to sustainability@ocps.net to find out how you can get involved. This can include signing up for future pilots, starting composting on-site with school or classroom compost bins, or finding other ways to reduce food waste – see ideas below.

    • Join the next pilot program at OCPS or get involved in using compost generated from food preparations with FNS. Reach out to sustainability@ocps.net to see availability and opportunities at your school.
    • Add a compost bin to your school to compost on-site. Reach out to sustainability@ocps.net to learn options for getting a compost bin and coordinating with your school’s administration.
    • Start a share table and food donation at your school to decrease waste and provide extra food for students and community members in need. Speak with your school's FNS (cafeteria/kitchen) Manager to learn about how to get this started.
    • Compost at home with your own compost bin or sign up for O-Town Compost’s at-home composting service, and use promo code COMPOSTOCPS for 15% off. (O-Town Compost)

  • Please reach out to Karena Bozarth, FNS Sustainability Manager, to learn more about share tables. Karena.Bozarth@ocps.net 

  • Custodial Crew Leads please order on the O-Town Compost portal a week in advance of when you will need more bin liners. If you are not a Custodial Crew Lead, please check with them first. If you are a Crew Lead and do not have an account on the portal, please email info@o-towncompost.com requesting an account. Thank you!

  • According to OCPS’s last waste audit, an average of 58% of trash from schools is compostable material. Composting food waste is a great opportunity to educate students, reduce waste, save money, and help the environment.

  • Yes, composting can be incorporated into many different lesson plans and educational opportunities. Please refer to the Education section above under “Why is it important?” Also, O-Town Compost is constructing a compost site on the 4 Roots Farm Campus, and hope to have it available for classroom tours of the facility. In addition, O-Town Compost is happy to set up a virtual call to discuss composting curriculum, and verify details of the process.

  • O-Town Compost is a young company of 4 years that seeks to become a key component of Orange County’s waste diversion infrastructure to help the City of Orlando meet its zero waste goal by 2040 and extend the life of Orange County’s landfill.

  • Please see What is Compostable? above.

  • Please see Contact Us below.

    • Utilize or add OSP Food Share Tables to share certain unused cafeteria food items.
    • Participate in the OCPS Food Donation program.
    • “Milk Optional” campaign
    • Recycling cardboard, paper, paperboard, plastic bottles and containers #1 and #2, aluminum, steel/tin cans, glass bottles and jars
    • Talk with your caregivers if they pack your lunch and you do not like what they send with you.
    • Plant native plants and flowers in your yard.
    • Bring food in reusable/washable containers and bags.
    • Save seeds from your fruits and vegetables to plant in your school garden or at home.
    • Buy foods that come in sustainable packaging like paper, recyclable plastics, or with no packaging at all.

  • Milk is allowed in a compost bin, but only if there is enough other food scraps in the bin to absorb the milk. We want to make sure the bins are not full of liquid to avoid messes when bins and picked up and emptied out. 

  • The smaller, 13-gallon green bins need to stay in the kitchen to be used only by FNS/cafeteria kitchen staff. These bins are used to collect waste from food being processed in the kitchen. FNS staff are responsible for filling the bags in those bins halfway, tying them, and then placing them outside in the larger green 48-gallon bins by the dumpster.

  • It can be helpful to tie a small knot in the opening of the bag and then fit it around the mouth of the bin. Click here to watch a video tutorial!

  • In the event of a hurricane being anticipated, O-Town will ask pilot schools to secure their green bins at an indoor location. Regarding breaks, O-Town is open and doing pickups on most federal holidays.