City revives school composting program after students and teachers call for funding restoration
After suspending campus composting without explanation last June, the city restored funding last month for the organics recycling component of the DCPS Recycles! Program.
In response to a DC Council oversight hearing in February where students and teachers called for the DC Department of General Services (DGS) to reinstate the funding, the department re-implemented composting in DC public schools as of April 1.
Zia Batallando, a third-grader at School Without Walls at Francis-Stevens, said during the Feb. 28 hearing that students were frustrated by the funding cuts and wanted answers.
“We were taught how to put stuff in recycling, trash and compost bins. We’ve done it and it worked! But then — kaboom! It stopped! We want to know how this happened. Who exactly is responsible? The situation needs to be repaired.”
Batallando was joined by Francis-Stevens teacher Ibti Vincent, who shared similar concerns that the hard work by the District’s students and teachers was “literally going into the trash.”
When asked about the restored funding and the original rationale for the elimination of campus composting, DGS director Keith Anderson told The DC Line through a spokesperson that he found it beneficial and constructive to reinstate the program but gave no reason for last year’s suspension. Anderson joined the agency in November, having previously served as director of the DC Department of Parks and Recreation and, before that, the District’s environmental agency.
“DGS was moved by the commitment of the green-team students … when they testified during the agency’s recent performance hearing,” Anderson said in a statement. “As an agency, DGS wants to ensure that it promotes environmental stewardship, starting with the District’s youth.”
After the program’s 2015 launch, DGS reported that the city’s campuses diverted 252 tons of organic waste from incinerators or landfills in the program’s first fiscal year. Prior to the department suspending the funds, 35 of the 115 DCPS campuses in the District were participating in composting by sending their organic waste to a composting facility in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, according to information provided by DGS. Of those 35, only 11 had on-site bins in a school garden where students could participate in composting organic waste, to be later transported to the same facility.
With this month’s restoration of funding, Francis-Stevens launched a composting site at its 2425 N St. NW campus, bringing the total number of schools to 12.
Ward 3 DC Council member Mary Cheh, chair of the Committee on Transportation and the Environment and an advocate for more composting programs in the District, said in an interview that composting at schools across the District demonstrates widespread support for the practice.
But she said that having DGS pay to transport waste from campuses to the Maryland facility — where it is processed and resold for landscaping by a third party — is far from ideal.
“We’re looking for our own composting facility here in the District,” Cheh said. “Before too long, probably starting with a pilot, I want to have curbside composting for homes. Many residents are after me to get that going.”
Cheh said she has been pushing for a composting site inside the District for years, but officials have yet to establish a location or specific timeline. The Sustainable DC 2.0 plan released last week envisions construction of a new “organics processing facility” in the District under the auspices of the Department of Public Works within the next five to nine years.
Finding a location is difficult because the District has a shortage of available land, according to Amy Kelley, a member of the Zero Waste Committee for the DC chapter of the Sierra Club.
“It takes a large parcel of land for a facility like this, and that’s not something that we have in abundance in the District,” Kelley said, adding that the current practice of trucking composted waste to Prince George’s County contributes to the region’s carbon emissions.
Still, Cheh said children are “very powerful environmentalists in the home” and the campuses’ composting programs help educate students on dealing with organic waste and the “ethics of composting.”
“I do hear from parents that they find the children are very enthusiastic about it and they are happy themselves that it’s part of their education,” she added.
Anderson said the composting program is available to all District schools that officially request to participate. He visited Francis-Stevens earlier this month to meet with the new student composting team.
Referencing the District’s alignment with the Environmental Protection Agency 2030 Food Loss and Waste Reduction Goal, Kelley said student composting is “a small but important part of the overall waste diversion goals” the District aims to meet. The Sustainable DC 2.0 plan calls for the city to reach an 80 percent waste diversion rate by 2032, up from a baseline of 21 percent.
On DCPS campuses that participate in the composting program, students assisted by teachers and administrators go to stations following cafeteria meals to sort their leftovers and trash into three bin categories: trash, mixed recycling and compost.
Elizabeth Whisnant — principal of Horace Mann Elementary School, one of the campuses with on-site composting — said even the youngest students participate. The school at 4430 Newark St. NW made the program’s “honor roll” four years running, becoming an “Ambassador School” in June 2018.
“Even pre-K and [kindergarten classes] manage the solution of their lunch matter themselves,” she said. Whisnant added that while the lapse in program funding was unfortunate and she is not aware of the cause, she is pleased the DGS contract has been renewed.
Whisnant acknowledged that the program does pose challenges that may be difficult for some schools to overcome. Fighting the intrusion of rats is a “constant battle” that likely arises at all participating schools, Whisnant said.
“[We’re] getting a pressure washer to make sure that we are cleaning the area where the recycling and the trash dumpster and the composting bins are,” she said.
As of the 2017-18 school year, sites other than Mann with an on-campus composting bin were Barnard Elementary, Burroughs Elementary, Capitol Hill Montessori @ Logan, Hardy Middle, Ketcham Elementary, Leckie Elementary, Randle-Highlands Elementary, School-Within-School @ Goding, Tubman Elementary and Walker-Jones Education Campus.
For schools that request to participate, DGS provides the bins and waste pickup service to operate the program. Neighbors using the compost bins creates another challenge, Whisnant explained.
“We have a fairly open campus — somebody will drive into the parking lot, open up the bins, toss something in and then leave the bin open, and so that’s a significant problem,” she said.
But Whisnant said Horace Mann is working strategically to reduce the amount of waste stored in on-campus bins by instructing students to select their prefered lunch meal at the start of the school day. Previously, staff members estimated how much food to prepare without that information.
“The cardinal rule is to reduce,” Cheh said similarly. “And then, if nevertheless we have waste for recycling or composting, then we’ll deal with it.”
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