Carmel Awarded 1st Place for Responsible School Waste Plan

During the 2022-2023 school year, Carmel Catholic High School embarked on a plan to responsibly reduce waste generated by students, teachers and faculty with the goal of ultimately achieving net zero waste. The project focused primarily on cafeteria waste, classroom waste and electronic waste. 

In reviewing the project, one judge commented, “Wonderful efforts on the path to zero waste at Carmel! Student engagement and creativity is evident throughout the project, and they have the data to back up their work. I loved all the educational materials (videos, games, etc.) to teach and test the school community's knowledge.”

The award was presented at the virtual Green Schools Celebration on May 17.

The Illinois Green Schools Project is a project-based challenge for K-12 schools to devise and implement creative no- to low-cost energy, water and waste initiatives, and sustainable practices.

Earlier in the school year, Carmel was the recipient of a grant through the Illinois Green School Project. Carmel used its grant toward the purchase of additional recycling bins for school classrooms.

Project Outline

First, Carmel students conducted waste audits to assess:

• How much waste is being sent to landfill
• What types of waste are being generated
• If there is any contamination in recycling streams
• Evaluate which waste streams can be designed out/reduced/replaced with recyclable/reusable/compostable alternatives.

December 2022 waste audit data is shown on the right.

Second, from the results of the waste audits, Carmel implemented changes to their operations and waste program, which included:

• a school composting program within the cafeteria to eliminate food waste being sent to landfill. Later on, it was requested by faculty and staff to also have a compost collection in the faculty room and art room.
• setting up waste stations in the cafeteria with student ‘bin monitors’ to assist students and continually educate them on which lunch waste items go in which bins.
• Carmel High School worked alongside their cafeteria food management provider to replace any cafeteria goods destined for landfill, with compostable/reusable/recyclable alternatives. This included;
• Replacing single-use ketchup packets with bulk containers to eliminate packaging
• Replacing single-use plastic forks and knives with wooden, compostable chopsticks and providing reusable cutlery packets.
• A student-led assessment of the number and types of waste bins in each classroom in the building. Carmel then purchased new recycling bins for rooms without them (this is how the grant funds were utilized)
• Hosting an IT collection day in which faculty and staff inventoried and assessed which IT equipment they no longer needed. Student ambassadors went door to door collecting the surplus equipment from classrooms to be evaluated and inventoried altogether. Any non-functioning or obsolete IT equipment was recycled through a recycling partner and any good-condition equipment is now being stored by IT for use by faculty and staff before purchasing new.
• Implemented battery recycling program for faculty and staff
• Additionally, Carmel student ambassadors gave proper sorting trainings during morning homeroom at the beginning of the implementation and throughout the year as a reminder as needed. An example training can be viewed here:  E-Vengers episode 2: Are you smarter than Climate Change?! (10/18/2022).Project Highlights