Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Designing A Comprehensive Waste Management Plan For K-12 Public School Systems: Ridgefield High School Zero-Waste Initiative Case Study, Caitlin Saoirse Boyle

Student Theses 2015-Present

Waste management is fundamental to reducing the anthropogenic impact on the environment. It allows humans to recycle plastic, cardboard, aluminum, etc waste that would otherwise pile in a landfill, and compost food and napkin scraps. Ridgefield High School, a local Connecticut public school, initially diverted all of its cafeteria waste to landfills, with recycling bins only in teachers’ offices and select classrooms. Through the first waste audit conducted on their cafeteria trash, out of 258 lbs of waste collected, there is an 82.5% opportunity for diversion out of the waste stream including liquid, mixed recyclables, food, paper, 5-cent recyclables, and …