GreenStar Schools

Westborough Middle School Baseline Waste Assessment

April 9 2020

The seventh grade science classes did the GSS Waste Baseline Assessment.

Summary

Students began with an initial, baseline waste inventory where we looked through the whole school's trash and counted how many bags of trash we generate on a daily basis.  It was approzimately 25 large bags of trash, most of which came from lunchtime. Through various labs, lessons and articles, students learned basic chemistry concepts such as the Law of Conservation of Mass and chemical reactions.  They also studied waste disposal methods throughout the world and focused on the 4R's.  Students identified specific waste issues in their school community, such as incorrectly disposing of plastic or paper utensils, or using unnecessary items that contribute to harmful waste.  The Planeteers Club finally got the district to implement a share table at lunchtime to reduce food waste!  The whole school was trained on share table guidelines and the Planeteers monitor the share table each day.  We also participated in Youth Climate Strikes every Friday for a month in the fall to bring awaremess to problems with trash and pollution of our natural resources! Students made posters and banners for extra credit.

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