Chickens could help reduce school waste

Stratford High School students sort through rubbish during the waster audit.

Chickens may hold the key to helping Stratford High School reuse the amount of food scraps thrown out everyday.

Students are considering getting some birds after realising how much food is thrown out during a recent waste audit.

During the audit, they sorted out three days of waste to see what could be diverted from landfill.

The school's Enviroshools co-ordinator Jodie Sullivan says students decided they wanted to better understand what happens to their food waste.

They found that 27 per cent of the total amount thrown out was food waste and five per cent was uneaten food.

"In particular, the group was interested in the amount of food waste that is generated, and how this could be used to feed chooks they would like to introduce on site at the school. They found there would be around 50kg a week. That should feed quite a few chooks.

"It would be great to supply breakfast club with eggs. Recycling this waste stream that would other wise go in the landfill creating carbon dioxide and methane."

To audit the waste it was spread out over five tarpaulins, and then sorted piece by piece into piles of food scraps, paper, cans, recyclable plastic and other waste. Each category of materials was then weighed and the results analysed.

This information can be used to guide decision making on how improvements could be made at the school.

Taranaki Environmental Education Trust IMPACT Youth co-ordinator Laine Phillips said recent unpublished research suggests that as much as half of the food we throw away is avoidable and unnecessary.

"Understanding the size of the problem is important, as it could be costing our school money and causing unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions."

The audit involved 24 year 10 students as well as Taranaki Environmental Education Trust IMPACT Youth co-ordinator Jo Weise, Waste Minimisation Officer Nadine Ord and Taranaki Regional Council/Stratford District Councillor Alan Jamieson.

IMPACT is a programme of the Taranaki Environmental Education Trust. It is a youth action incubator, facilitating youth-led environmental projects that give back to the local community.

Students have volunteered their time to the programme, as they are interested in protecting and enhancing their environment.

The school is an EnviroSchool and undertakes a number of initiatives at the school to be more sustainable.