The Marquette Environmental Coalition (MEC), a combination of the Student Alliance for the Environment (SAFE) and Gardening Club, worked with the Gluons Robotics team to conduct a waste audit during lunch today.
The goal of the audit is to measure how much trash students produce during lunch by organizing the trash into six different categories: trash, plastics, cardboard, metals, compost and liquids. The bags will then be weighed on spring weights to determine how much of each category is produced.
“For the Gluons Go Green initiative, we’re all about trying to promote sustainability and spread awareness about taking care of our Earth,” Gluons captain Shruti Sugumar, senior, said.
Susan Hartley, MEC sponsor, said the goal of the waste audit is to teach students about the types of waste that can be sustainably recycled and how to identify them.
“For example, so many kids are trying to take their single use plastic and put it in the recyclable plastic bin without realizing that single use plastic is trash,” Hartley said.
One of the secondary goals of the waste audit is to determine if the MEC would be able to begin composting food waste generated during lunch.
“If we could sustainably do composting, that would be so huge,” Hartley said. “It would even turn a profit because once it’s created, then we could sell it or use it on campus.”
Junior Principal Kyle Devine said composting by the MEC could be beneficial for the school, but could be difficult due to the volume of food waste produced each day.
“If they were able to produce soil that we could use around the campus or to create vegetable beds, that would be amazing,” Devine said.
Hartley said MEC is planning to plant Missouri-native plants such as wildflowers in the front of the school to attract animals like butterflies and bees in the spring.
Devine said recycling is highly encouraged by the administration.
“We have recycling-only dumpsters, we have recycling bins in the cafeteria and we have recycling bins in every classroom that students come around and collect,” Devine said.
