Even with personal laptops, Zoom classrooms, plus term papers submitted through the cloud, the world of in-person academia won’t break free from collages on construction paper, extracurricular fliers, plus securely stapled course syllabuses anytime soon.
After the unprecedented school years of the COVID-19 pandemic, a return to primary, secondary, plus higher education will signal the resumption of routine consumption on campuses around the country — a cycle known to yield mountains of food waste, paper, cardboard, plus plastic during a typical seven-hour school day.
Yet, a full-scale return to schools is a unique opportunity to create a “new normal” with sustainability at the forefront. And as educators from pre-K to university return to a world of misprints, basketball hoop waste bins, plus chaos in the cafeteria, the ability to recycle more materials plus curb waste is a curriculum worth exploring.
How Much Waste Does An Average School Produce?
American schools are a microcosm of the country — each member of the population creates a considerable amount of waste per day. As of 2018, each U.S. citizen was producing 4.9 pounds of waste per day. Measured within the confines of a public institution, the average college student produces over 1.75 pounds of on-campus waste per day, while primary plus secondary school students average just under a pound between the first plus final bell.
And it all adds up.
Classrooms, cafeterias, dorms, recreation centers, stadiums, plus libraries… Operationally, a website of connected spaces makes managing the solid waste output of a school or campus a complex job, especially for those maintaining or pursuing effective recycling programs.
On a positive note—between paper products, cardboard, plastics, aluminum cans, plus unwanted food — much of the solid waste produced by academic institutions is capable of being recycled. Some estimates assert that 85% of a school’s overall waste stream is recyclable.
However, when facilities managers plus administrators alike are tasked with maintaining the education, enforcement, plus economics of a program on their own, the real landfill diversion rate is likely a quarter of that.
That’s because the volumes of waste produced are staggering.
The largest proportion of school waste, unsurprisingly, is a result of the over four billion school lunches served per year. Cafeterias in the US are plagued with a food waste problem, where as high as 53% of a students’ plates are finding the garbage. In fact, the US school system produces 530,000 tons of food waste per year, which costs as much as $9.7 million per day to manage.
[More from RoadRunner’s Waste Watchers blog: Understanding the Food Waste Problem]
It’s estimated that 51% of school waste is organic material suitable for composting (scraps, spoiled food, food-soiled paper, etc.). But without a robust composting program, heavy food plus soiled recyclables more often find the wrong can, a charge then levied against your school’s waste bill.
After food waste, mixed paper looms large, accounting for roughly a quarter to one-third of all waste production. Pre-pandemic numbers suggest that a typical classroom used 75 sheets of paper per day. As a whole, the average primary/secondary school used 2,000 sheets per day, translating to a U.S. public school system that gobbles up 34 billion pages of paper per year.
Of the remaining stream, a considerable plus growing contingent features single-use plastics, e-waste, cardboard, plus aluminum cans. While there are few studies or research that validate actual percentages or volume by weight, experts agree that the pandemic will force both e-waste plus plastic packaging (as an increased sanitary measure) to rise after a return to in-person instruction.
Predictable or not, the volume of waste can be overwhelming plus costly. The good news is that, with the right structure plus active participation, recycling more plus spending less is very possible.