The Granby Conservation Commission contacted assistant superintendent Jenn Parsons about starting a composting program in the school district to help Granby move closer to being a Connecticut Sustainable Town. When Kelly Lane literacy coach Elisabeth Diemer heard about the initiative, she was very interested.
As a member of the district’s wellness committee, Diemer and the other committee members thought it best to start with the primary school and grow the program into the other schools in succeeding years.
After a handful of logistical meetings, the wellness team planned for a roll-out in November 2022. With the support of the Blue Earth composting service and many parent volunteers, the students learned how to sort their lunch waste into compost, recycling and trash receptacles that were purchased by the school.
Once a week, Blue Earth picks up the compostable material from the 65-gallon containers they provide that are kept outside. The charge for this service amounts to less than $200 a month, with a $30 standard fee and the rest based on volume. The folks at Blue Earth say that the Kelly Lane kids are doing a great job.
In order to reduce the impact on the environment, Kelly Lane School provides compostable straws, flatware and lunch trays. This also helps to make the sorting process easier for these youngest students, ages 5 to 8.
Student buy-in on this initiative was enthusiastic from the start. Saving the earth is important to even these young ones. Since lunch time in a K–2 school is “not for the faint of heart,” volunteer parents were solicited to help the children learn the procedures. Having family there to show they believed in the project certainly helped the kids to adapt to the sorting. Staff and parents were happily surprised at how quickly and enthusiastically the students picked up on the sorting process.
When asked why this project is important, 8-year-old Adde said, “We’re the only planet with life and we need to protect it!” Eight-year-old Declan noted, “composting turns unused food back into soil to make more food.” Both agreed that having different colored containers made learning what to put where quite easy.
Plans for next year involve utilizing the Title IV grant funds the school district receives to expand the composting initiative to the Wells Road Intermediate School. Diemer hopes that the project will eventually grow to include the middle school and then the high school.
If the students talk about the composting program at home, perhaps families will take up the initiative on their own and even more importantly, encourage the town to adopt a curbside compost pick-up. Reducing landfill waste would be a wonderful result. What one fairly small school has accomplished is significant. Since the program started in November, Kelly Lane has been responsible for composting 8,125 pounds of waste. This mitigates carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to driving an average car almost 2,000 miles, or charging almost 94,000 smartphones, according to statistics provided by the Blue Earth company.
Diemer, students and parents give a hearty shout-out to Head Custodian Luis Sulca for the time and effort he contributes to the composting program, “We couldn’t do it without him!”