In one day, about 4 pounds of waste per person in the U.S.A. goes straight to landfills. This means about 17 million pounds of waste are generated each day. About 75% of America’s waste can actually be recycled, but on average this only happens to about 30%. One method to help lower the amount of waste we produce is composting.

 

Composting is the process of changing vegetable matter or manure into plant fertilizer. To do this, put food or nature scraps into bins that will, over time, decay and become nutrient-rich fertilizer that can be added to soil.

 

Common household food scraps like eggshells, fruit, coffee grounds, and tea bags can all be composted. Even yard trimmings like grass and leaves can be put into compost bins. By mixing the scraps every 2-5 weeks, the compost will be ready for use in about three months. Composting is something that all households can do with little more than a trash can. Creating holes in the trash can allows oxygen to get to all the small organisms that decompose the scraps. Even though so much can be composted, little really is.

 

St. Edmund’s Academy seventh grade students want to help decrease waste and increase our recycling efforts. To help reduce the amount of reusable waste that is not put into use, seventh grade students are designing composting inventions to be put to use in our school. Groups of students are designing machines that will take in food scraps and produce nutrient rich compost for our new school gardens. This will help make use of our food scraps.

 

A grant of $5000 from Highmark is helping with the cost of the project, and the two seventh grade classes will divide this sponsorship evenly.

 

To begin the project, students were divided into eight teams. Each team was assigned a task which was part of the whole process. One team consisted of the project managers who looked over all the financial business, making sure the project stayed within the budget. They were also put in charge of making sure the group followed the timeline, so that the project would be finished in a reasonable time.

 

The science experts, did all the necessary research for the design team to be able to create a design for the composting appliance.

The design team created a 3D model of the machine, using the school’s 3D printer. Their blueprint was passed along to the build team, who is responsible for creating the actual composting machine.

 

As the build team works, the marketing team will take pictures and create videos to show the process of creating the apparatus. This team will also create posters and advertisements to encourage recycling and composting.  Once the composting mechanism is built, the experimenters will begin to test different materials to determine how each waste breaks down in the apparatus. That way, we will learn what works best to compost, and what cannot be composted as easily. The implementation team will make sure all of St. Edmund’s Academy’s students are aware of the project’s purpose, monitor students’ recycling habits, and encourage composting at school.  This team is responsible for implementing the composting in the school. Finally, the compost managers will begin the actual composting process. This team will manage the machine, mixing the compost whenever necessary.

 

The goal is for the composting machine to be built and running before spring break.  We hope to use some of the compost for the gardens on the school’s play deck. St. Edmunds Academy hopes to help limit the amount of waste we produce, while creating a greener Pittsburgh!