MPH is Composting!
This year, Manlius Pebble Hill School has joined OCRRA’s award-winning food scraps composting program. Composting reduces waste, increases recycling, and reinforces an important environmental lesson for your child each day. This student-led initiative stems from much research and several attempts by the school’s “Green Avengers” environmental club to get this program up and running. Recent graduate Marina Cousins got the ball rolling last year and this year’s student group was thrilled to pick up where she left off. “We’re already seeing so much less waste,” says sophomore Maya Heimes.
Partnering with OCRRA was paramount to MPH’s efforts. Theresa Evans, a representative from OCRRA says, “food scraps alone make up over 20% of the wasted materials in schools. Recovering this waste through composting makes a huge impact.” The composting program at MPH is for all students grades Pre-K through 12. Signs above the receptacles indicate what items should be placed where to make it easy for even the youngest students to get involved. When the compost bin is full, it’s shipped to OCRRA’s compost site.
MPH junior Nathan Sonnenfeld has been very hands-on in this process. “Composting is an amazing resource we have. Not only is the tonnage dumping fee less than it is for trash, but we’re able to better our environment by keeping much of our dining hall waste out of landfills. It’s also caused everyone to be more cognizant of how much food they’re throwing out daily, which further reduces our overall waste. OCRRA has done some educational work with our lower school and is working with our student environmental club, The Green Avengers, to increase awareness of the simplicity of composting and the immense benefits associated with it. My guess is that seeing this in action will increase the likelihood that when students are adults and living independently, they will integrate composting into their everyday practices.”
CNY Central, our local NBC affiliate recently visited MPH and aired a segment on our school’s efforts. The links to these stories are posted below.