Sustainability

Awty students have always been intrigued by composting, the idea of turning waste into a useful resource. In 2017, a permanent composting program was established.

During the Spring of 2021, The Awty International school extended its composting program and is now partnering with Moonshot, a composting company that allows us to compost all the food waste that can’t go in the normal garden compost bins (like meat, dairy, sauce, plate scraps...). With this additional system (present on both the Early Learning and main campuses), Awty will no longer send any food waste to the landfill, and it will provide compost/fertilizer right here on campus and in the community.

 

 

Each day, the Awty kitchen staff fill an industrial-sized bin with organic scraps (such as fruit peels, vegetable stems, etc.) acquired from cooking and baking throughout the day. Then, student volunteers carry the bin from the kitchen to seven specialized compost bins located next to the Awty gardens. They transfer the organic scraps to the compost bin.

Additionally, discarded landscaping materials (such as dry grass clippings) are added to the compost bin. By doing so, this allows the scraps to decompose, reverting to organic materials through breakdown by microorganisms, insects, and bacteria.

Students also maintain the compost by “turning” the scraps, exposing the material to oxygen. Eventually, after months of decomposition, the waste turns into a nutrient-rich fertilizer, which is used in the school gardens to grow bountiful fruits and vegetables.

Awty students of all ages have been involved in this program. Middle School and Upper School students are able to participate in the program in a hands-on fashion, while Lower School students learn about the composting process by the posters posted around the school.

Furthermore, the program itself teaches students the importance of recycling and being mindful about their consumption, skills necessary especially in today’s world. The kitchen staff also feels assured knowing the extra food is not simply wasted or added to landfills, but rather benefits the environment and the school itself. Ultimately, the composting program at Awty is not only good for the environment, but it is also good for the student body and staff as it teaches them to be mindful of the world that supports them.

This video presents students from the 2020-2021 school year as they compost:

 

Next to the Staff Cafeteria.

A digester like this contains a lower bag that contains a lot of bacteria. When we feed this system with the food waste from the cafeteria, those bacteria break them down in a naturally occurring process and create both methane that is collected on the upper bag and connected (with a tube going around the cafeteria) to an outdoor burner that is used by Chef Jay and the SAGE team to cook food right here on campus.

Bonus: It also produces liquid fertilizer that is used on the school campus! What was once called food waste is now a resource we use to create Methane and liquid fertilizer.

At The Awty International School, we go beyond the usual stream of recycling available around the city.

We aim to be a “zero waste" campus. We first identified the waste produced in the classroom. A big portion comes from school-related waste such as writing instruments, glue sticks, tape cores, batteries, ink cartridges, and small electronics.

We then identified places where such waste can be either recycled, upcycled (transformed into different objects such as used plastic turned into a watering can), or refurbished (for small electronics).

All around campus, you will find recycling stations where such waste (writing instruments, glue sticks, tape cores, batteries, ink cartridge, and small electronics) can be dropped off. They are located in Mrs. Boz's office, Mrs. Nguyen's office, and the Lower School copy room.

 

Each year, Awty hosts an electronics drive where the Awty community can bring all of their old electronics (printers, computers, cell phones, audio equipment, and much more) to be properly recycled. Last year, the electronics drive took place on April 23, 2021. This was the fifth year The Awty International School has hosted such an event. To date, the school has been able to divert 12,985 pounds of electronics from being put in a landfill.

 

The Awty International School's International Festival is one of the biggest on-campus events of the school year. Students, parents, faculty, and staff get to taste foods from the many countries represented during the two-day festival.

This is a great experience for the Awty community, but we do not want it to come at the expense of the environment. In an effort to reduce the waste related to serving the food, we have invested in reusable plates and silverware provided for all to use.

It allows us to reduce the amount of waste by half compared to the years when disposables were used. The students have tracked the collected data since the first year the project was implemented. We went from 846 pounds of waste on day two in 2016 to 420 pounds of waste on day two in 2017. In 2019, we collected 575 pounds of waste on day two of the festival.