The Compost Plan

As the Science Teacher at The Montessori School, I promote practices and behaviors that take care of the earth because the earth takes care of us. The Earth provides air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, and space to live. It also provides resources such as coal and oil which we use for energy.

One of the ways that we can take care of the earth is by reducing trash that goes to landfills. This is why we use food scraps to make compost at TMS - something that used to go to the landfill now becomes useful nutrition for the sustainable garden. We encourage every member of our school community to compost when you are at TMS.

Cheers! Dottie Baumgarten

Compost Plan For The Montessori School

Food scraps from snack, lunch, and cooking activities are composted along with garden debris.

Reason: When plant material goes to the compost pile, it does not go to the landfill. This results in (1) reducing trash and (2) reducing energy use.  Because: (1) We are making something useful from our own waste. (2) We are not using fuel to transport waste from one location to another.

Steps:

• Each class collects their own scraps and takes them to a compost bin each day.
• Teachers collect food scraps in the teacher’s lunchroom or they add their lunch scraps to their classroom collection. Aftercare takes the food scraps to the compost bin daily.
• When there are events and activities, compost is collected and taken to the compost bin.
• There are three compost bins on the school property. One is outside the toddler play area fence. The other two are by the sustainable garden. There could be leaves/garden waste beside the compost bins for layering with the food scraps. The recipe and ratio could be “one cup each of food scraps and yard waste”.
• Periodically turn or empty the compost bin, and use the finished compost for gardening.

Guide For Collecting Compostable Material:

• If it comes from a plant, compost it (one exception: there are nut allergies in school, so avoid nuts)
• If it comes from an animal, don’t compost it (one exception: eggshells are welcome)

Guidelines For Children In Lower Elementary:

• Compost: Fruits, Vegetables, Breads/Grains, Egg Shells
• Never compost: Meat, Nuts, Cheese or Yogurt

Compost Possibilities:

• Cooked fruit and vegetable scraps
• Coffee grounds (the coffee filter is compostable too!)
• Teabags (and the teabag paper is compostable!)
• Natural material - dried flowers and leaf debris, etc
• Crackers
• Pasta (without cheese or meat)
• Bread (without cheese, meat or peanut butter)

Information On What Not To Compost:

• No cheese or meat (but cheese-flavored goldfish and cheddar crackers are compostable)
• Compost only a limited amount of oil
• Because there are nut allergies in the school, no nuts or nut butters