Canyon Middle School's First Ever Waste Audit

Thursday, January 17^th marked a historic day at Canyon Middle School!  As a part of CVSan’s Green Ribbon Schools Program, Canyon Middle School completed its first ever waste audit.  CVSan staff along with a teacher and 19 students from Canyon Connection, a 6^th grade service group, and one parent volunteer took on the challenge of sorting through an entire day’s worth of garbage.  The purpose of the audit was to see what actually could have been placed in the recycling or organics carts. 

Sorting the garbage from a school of 1,377 students was a daunting task.  But, thanks to the spirited resolve of those in attendance, the audit was finished in just two hours. 

In this great learning experience, students found that out of the 839.5 gallons of garbage generated from Canyon Middle School in a 24 hour period (36.5 bags of 23 gallons each), only 15% was actually garbage and therefore a total of 85% could have gone in the recycling (41%) or organics cart (44%). 

Here are some examples of what could have been recycled and composted instead of being sent to the landfill:

Recyclables in the garbage: plastic containers, plastic bags and plastic film, paper, cardboard, bottles, and cans

Organics in the garbage: food scraps, food-soiled paper, milk cartons, pencil shavings, napkins, paper towels, and tissues

Great job Canyon Middle School for committing to see what’s in the garbage and continuing to reduce your waste at school!  A special thank you to the Canyon Connection teacher Lee Ann Chinn and custodians Steve Birmingham and Marta Waste for putting it all together with CVSan to make the waste audit happen.