The Gaia Project

270 Rookwood Ave

Fredericton, NB
E3B 2M2

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

Lincoln
Elementary
Community
School:
Waste Audit Summary

April 16th, 2014
s
Lincoln Elementary Community School: Waste Audit Summary
A summary of the results from the waste audit conducted on April 16th, 2013.

Copyright 2014 The Gaia Project. Last updated on April 22nd, 2014.
Commercial reproducton of The Gaia Project materials is prohibited without prior writen permission

The Gaia Project is a charitable organizaton 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
realistc environmentalism.
1. Data-Informed Decisions We want students to be able to explain why, and quantfy the efect of
each decision they made along the way to their fnal soluton.
2. Economic Assessments We expect students to be able to assess the cost efectveness of their so-
lutons, and be able to optmize their projects with limited budgets.
3. Environmental Impact and Lifecycle Assessments We need students to take a holistc 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 reducton is not the only environmental issue at
stake.
For more informaton, 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 donatons and grants from:
The McCain Foundaton
Environment Canadas EcoActon Program
New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government Environmental Trust Fund
Fredericton Community Foundaton




Front Cover Credits
Wheelie BinsCaledonia Lane photo by Geof Wilson under a Creatve 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 Lincoln Elementary
Community School collaborated on a audit of
the schools waste on April 16th, 2014. Ms.
Bowies grade 5 class, Christne Clif -
Community School Coordinatorand The Gaia
Project staf examined the schools waste and
discussed ways to reduce the schools overall
waste footprint.
This audit can be follow up in the future by
another audit to assess how well
recommendatons and waste reducton
solutons have been implemented. 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 specifc changes in the waste categories
targeted.
The Process
For the current waste audit, the custodial staf
collected all of the garbage at the school on
April 15th, bagged it and placed it aside for use
in the waste audit.
Sorting categories
We decided on 6 sortng categories:
Paper
Recyclable plastcs
Botles and Boxes
Milk Cartons
Compost
Garbage
Weighing and Sorting
Afer deciding on our 6 sortng 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 startng
amount of waste was known and could be
checked against the fnal amount.
Groups then opened the bags and sorted its
contents.
We subsequently weighed the contents of each
sortng 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 sortng categories.

Results
The total weight of waste collected from 1
typical school day was approximately 29 kg. ,
or approximately 63 lbs. You can fnd the actual
weight from each sortng category (our raw
data) in Table 1 in the Appendix.
The total weight of waste by category can be
seen in the pie chart on the following page.



Photo courtesy of Lincoln Elementary Community
School website

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Finally, the amount of waste collected and sorted
into each category has been projected forward to
provide an estmate of the waste produced on an
annual basis. Assuming 185 school days in a year,
Lincoln Elementary Community School produces
approximately 5,300 kg of waste annually. These
annual projectons can be found in Table 2 in the
Appendix. This is a very rough estmate.
Assuming 200 students that regularly atend
Lincoln Elementary Community School, each
student produces approximately 0.1 kg of waste
per day, and 24 kg annually.
Summary
Through the process of measuring how much and
what type of waste Lincoln Elementary
Community School produces, it was discovered
that on April 16th, 2014:
41% of the waste could have been
recycled. This includes paper, milk cartons,
botles and boxes, and recyclable plastc.
44% of the waste was compostable
material.
15% of the waste was actual garbage that
needed to be there.
Recommendations
Ms. Bowies class, along with Christne Clif and
The Gaia Project, brainstormed a variety of
recommendatons that go toward reducing the
amount of waste generated at Lincoln
Elementary Community School. These are
described below:
Eat all of the food that came in your lunch.
Take what you cant eat back home for re-
use.
Bring your lunch in re-usable containers
and avoid keeping it in baggies.
Buy food in bulk or bigger containers to
reduce the waste associated with
individually wrapped items.
Start a worm compostng program to
repurpose food waste into usable soil.
Re-use boxes and fllable water botles.
Increase the number and visibility of
recycling bins, especially in the cafeteria
and snack areas.
Make notceable signage for recycling bins.
Use both sides of any paper being used.
Remind others about paper recycling and
recycling in general.
Re-purpose items (boxes, cardboard,
paper, botles, etc.) for use in arts and
crafs.
Make posters or announcements to
encourage the three Rs, Reduce, Re-use,
and Re-cycle.


44%
21%
4%
10%
15%
6%
Compost
Milk Cartons
Bottles & Boxes
Recyclable Plastics
Garbage
Paper
Lincoln Elementary
Community School:
Waste Types

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Contact Us
The Gaia Project is very interested in supportng
waste reducton and other energy-related
initatves at Lincoln Elementary Community
School in any that we can. This includes getng 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!



Vanessa Paesani, Executve 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 sortng category.
Table 2. Estmated annual weight (kg) per sortng class
Appendix
Sortng
Group
Compost (kg)
Milk Cartons
(kg)
Botles &
Boxes (kg)
Recyclable
Plastcs (kg)
Garbage (kg)
Paper
(kg)
Total
(kg)
Earth 5.3 3.8 0.8 0.9 1.7 0.2 12.6
JET 2.6 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.9 0.4 4.4
CBE 0.9 0.0 0.1 0.9 0.5 1.0 3.4
The Lions 3.9 2.0 0.2 0.7 1.3 0.1 8.1
Total 12.7 5.9 1.2 2.8 4.4 1.6 28.5
Sortng Category Daily (kg) Annual (kg)
Compost 12.7 2,300
Milk Cartons 5.9 1,100
Botles & Boxes 1.2 220
Recyclable Plastcs 2.8 510
Garbage 4.4 820
Paper 1.6 300
Total 28.6 5,250