Bellingham High School is the first high school in the district to implement the "Food to Flowers" program as of Sept. 30. "Food to Flowers" is a food waste recycling program. Leftover food, fruits, milk cartons, napkins and non-plastic containers are recycled in the school cafeteria.
"Food to Flowers" is used in elementary and middle schools districtwide. The program started in 2006 at three elementary schools in the district and later expanded to the middle schools.
Two Bellingham High School seniors Katie Tse and Bryn Hubbard brought the program to the high school level when they became interested in food recycling for a culminating project.
"It shows people how easy it is to help the environment. It's not something you have to go out of your way to do," Tse said of why she got involved in the project.
The district partners with the Sanitary Service Company (SSC) that provides recycling containers that use compostable bags. Students eat lunch and throw their scraps into the containers. The compost is removed by SSC and taken to Green Earth Technologies (GET) in Lynden where it is turned into soil. GET is the primary soil contractor for the school district, so students' compostable food becomes soil around school grounds.
"Food to Flowers" diverted an estimated 200,000 pounds of food waste in the 2006-07 school year. That number is only expected to grow as three schools have been added to the "Food to Flowers" program since the 2006-07 school year. Bellingham High School will be the fourth school to implement the program since 2006-07.
printer friendly