The Gaia Project

270 Rookwood Ave

Fredericton, NB
E3B 2M2

1 (506) 442"9030
www.thegaiaproject.ca
contact@thegaiaproject.ca

Nackawic
Elementary
School:
Waste Audit Summary

May 8th, 2014
s
Nackawic Elementary School: Waste Audit Summary
A summary of the results from the waste audit conducted on May 8th, 2014 with grade 4 students.

Copyright 2014 The Gaia Project. Last updated on May 13, 2014.
Commercial reproducon of The Gaia Project materials is prohibited without prior wrien permission

The Gaia Project is a charitable organizaon whose mission is to empower youth to make informed deci-
sions about energy and its impact on the environment.
We develop projects, provide professional development, technical support and ongoing project support for
teachers and students. Our projects aim to incorporate three key principles, which symbolise our focus on
realisc environmentalism.
1. Data"Informed Decisions We want students to be able to explain why, and quanfy the eect of
each decision they made along the way to their nal soluon.
2. Economic Assessments We expect students to be able to assess the cost eecveness of their so-
luons, and be able to opmize their projects with limited budgets.
3. Environmental Impact and Lifecycle Assessments We need students to take a holisc view to their
projects. This means looking at their projects from cradle to grave, as opposed to just examining the
use phase, and acknowledging that greenhouse gas reducon is not the only environmental issue at
stake.
For more informaon, please visit www.thegaiaproject.ca / www.projetgaia.ca
The Gaia Project
270 Rookwood Avenue
Fredericton, NB
E3B 2M2
Canada

1 (506) 442"9030
contact@thegaiaproject.ca


This project was supported by donaons and grants from:
The McCain Foundaon
Environment Canadas EcoAcon Program
New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government Environmental Trust Fund





Front Cover Credits
Wheelie BinsCaledonia Lane photo by Geof Wilson under a Creave Commons BY"ND 2.0 Licence
The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca

The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca
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Overview
The Gaia Project and Nackawic Elementary
School collaborated on an audit of the schools
waste on May 8th, 2014. Ms. Stone and Ms.
Rogers Grade 4 classes, parent volunteers, and
The Gaia Project sta examined the schools
waste and discussed ways to reduce the
schools overall waste footprint.
To determine the impact of any changes
implemented at the school, The Gaia Project
would be very interested in conducng a follow
"up audit during the 2014"2015 school year.
This would be done by comparing the results of
this audit to the next one, to see if the overall
amount of waste per day is reduced, and
whether there are any specic changes in the
waste categories targeted.





The Process
For the waste audit, the custodial sta collected
all of the garbage at the school from
Wednesday, May 7th, bagged it and placed it
aside for use in the waste audit. Redeemable
bole recycling that had been previously
collected (approximately one week) was
included as well.
Sorting categories
We decided on 6 sorng categories:
Paper
Recyclable Plascs
Recyclable Drink Containers
Milk Cartons
Compost
Garbage

Weighing and Sorting
Aer deciding on our 6 sorng categories,
students were provided with gloves, divided
into teams and provided with a kit of supplies.
Before any bags were opened, the weight of
each bag was recorded so that the starng
amount of waste was known and could be
checked against the nal amount.
Groups then opened the bags and sorted their
contents.
We subsequently weighed the contents of each
sorng category at the end of the audit. The
data from each group was entered into an excel
spreadsheet so that we could build a picture of
how much waste the school produces in a day
in total and in each of the 6 sorng categories.


Photo courtesy of The Gaia Project

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The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca
Results
The total weight of waste collected from one
typical school day was approximately 31 kg, or
approximately 68 pounds.
The weight of recycled boles was 9 kg.
Assuming this was collected over 5 days, 1.8 kg of
waste per day or 5% of total waste is currently
being diverted from the garbage desned for the
landll through the exisng redeemable bole
recycling program.
You can nd the actual weight from each sorng
category (our raw data) in Table 1 in the
Appendix. Figure 1 below shows the breakdown
of waste per sorng category from May 7th.

Finally, the amount of waste collected and sorted
into each category has been projected forward to
provide an esmate of the waste produced on an
annual basis. Assuming 185 school days in a year,
Nackawic Elementary School produces
approximately 5,700 kg or 12,500 pounds of
waste annually. These annual projecons can be
found in Table 2 in the Appendix. This is a very
rough esmate.
Assuming 200 students that regularly aend
Nackawic Elementary School, each student
produces approximately 0.2 kg of waste per day,
and 30 kg annually.
Summary
Through the process of measuring how much and
what type of waste Nackawic Elementary School
produces, it was discovered that on May 7th,
2014:
37% of the waste could have been
recycled. This includes paper, returnable
drink containers, and recyclable plasc.
23% of the waste was compostable
material.
40% of the waste was actual garbage that
needed to be there.
Recommendations
Ms. Stone and Ms. Rogers Grade 4 classes, along
with The Gaia Project, brainstormed a variety of
recommendaons to go toward reducing the
amount of waste generated at Nackawic
Elementary School. They are as follows:

Implement a composng program and
have compost bins at the school.

Place more paper recycling bins
throughout the school.

Reuse construcon, printer, and looseleaf
paper.

Wash out and keep recyclable plascs and
milk cartons to be used for arts and cras,
class projects, etc.

Talk to town council about having
recyclable plascs and milk cartons picked
up.
Figure 1. Waste per sorng category

The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca
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Encourage the use of reusable containers
for lunches instead of wrappers and bags
that would get thrown out.

Reuse plasc shopping bags and those that
come from the breakfast program.

Contact Us
The Gaia Project is very interested in supporng
waste reducon and other energy"related
iniaves at Nackawic Elementary School in any
that we can. This includes geng a start on any
of the ideas generated by students on the
previous page.
I look forward to discussing this report with the
school soon!

Thanks again for working with our team.



Vanessa Paesani, Execuve Director
vanessa.paesani@thegaiaproject.ca
www.thegaiaproject.ca
1 (506) 442"9030

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The Gaia Project www.thegaiaproject.ca
Table 1. Weight (kg) per sorng category.
Table 2. Esmated annual weight (kg) per sorng categoru
Appendix
Group
Returnable Drink
Containers (kg)
Milk Cartons
(kg)
Recyclable
Plascs (kg)
Paper &
Cardboard (kg)
Compost
(kg)
Garbage
(kg)
Total
(kg)
Swag 0.1 1.5 0.4 0.3 0.8 3.1 6.2
Enderman 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.8 1.5 3.4
T 0.2 0.8 0.2 3.6 1.4 4.2 10.3
Awesome 0.2 1.2 0.3 0.9 1.2 0.7 4.4
Unicorn 0.1 0.3 0.2 0.1 3.0 2.9 6.5
Total 0.6 4.0 1.3 5.5 7.2 12.4 30.9
Sorng Class Daily (kg) Annual (kg)
Returnable Drink Containers 0.57 100
Milk Cartons 3.99 740
Recyclable Plascs 1.28 240
Paper & Cardboard 5.45 1000
Compost 7.15 1320
Garbage 12.41 2300
Total 30.9 5700