The Park City High School Green Team presented its ongoing efforts to prevent food waste to the Park City School District Board of Education this month. They first discussed the Park City Community Foundation's goal of zero food waste in Summit County by 2030 and how they are helping the effort in local schools.
According to a 2019 study, 40% to 60% of solid waste in Summit County landfills is food waste, a major contributor to global warming as it releases methane. Further, almost $1.5 million a year in landfill costs and $140 in air space could be saved for every ton of waste diverted.
The Green Team has been working to divert food waste in local schools with its composting program. Team member Sonja Preston said Jeremy Ranch Elementary currently diverts the most food waste of all Park City schools, keeping about 22,000 pounds of food waste out of the local landfill in 2023.
“The elementary schools are able to have a lot more success because in the compost programs because the kids haven't formed habits yet,” she said. “But at Treasure [Mountain Junior High] and the high school, it's a lot more difficult to get students to change their behavior.”
Preston said if every school diverted that much waste, they would compost around 130,000 pounds of food each year. The district currently composts only around 40,000 pounds per year.
To increase the amount of food waste diverted from landfills, the team asked the board to fund a project to get more compost bins. The team said students will throw their garbage in the nearest trash instead of finding a compost bin and having more bins will help the cause.
“We just have a ton of trash cans throughout the lunchroom,” Preston said. “So it's really difficult for students who aren't motivated to compost their food waste.”
The team also plans to get a team of volunteers to monitor lunches and encourage students to compost food.
The board agreed to look into funding for more compost bins and also into writing a policy requiring every school to compost food. It will discuss these items at its next meeting June 18.
The Green Team also asked the board to sign on to a Zero Food Waste Compact. Other area nonprofits and businesses, including Park City Municipal, Deer Valley and Park City Mountain, have already joined the compact. The nonbinding pledge is a commitment to minimizing food waste, supporting systematic community changes to become more sustainable and more. The board agreed to sign the compact.
