|  | Saint Paul students begin feeding food waste to local pigs
10/3/2006 12:13 PMSaint Paul students begin feeding food waste to local pigs
Starting this week, Saint Paul public schools will begin a districtwide
effort to reduce the tons of garbage thrown out every year and feed as
much as possible of what’s left to local pigs.
Benefits of recycling food waste include:
- saving money (recycling food waste will significantly reduce the
State Solid Waste Management Tax and the County Environmental Charge
that the district is required to pay);
- improving safety (custodians won’t have to lift as many heavy garbage bags);
- increasing cleanliness and reducing odors (eliminating wet waste from garbage also eliminates lots of the mess and smell); and
- improving pest control (less garbage means fewer flies and wasps hovering around district dumpsters).
Having piloted this project last year at four schools—Galtier, Hancock,
International Academy, and Maxfield—the school district plans to
implement it districtwide by the end of this school year. The schools
starting the food waste recycling effort this week include Bridge View,
Four Seasons, and Highland Park. Other schools joining the effort
between now and December include:
Benjamin E. Mays Highland Park
Longfellow Homecroft
Capital Hill Museum Magnet
North End Webster
Crossroads Horace Mann
Expo J.J. Hill Randolph Heights
Groveland Park Linwood
At upcoming student assemblies, these schools will demonstrate how the
sorting process will work at breakfast and lunch. Basically, if the
pigs can eat it, it goes in the blue bucket; if they can’t, it goes in
the gray bucket. Barthold Farms, near Anoka, Minn., will then
pick up everything in the blue buckets and deliver it to the pigs.
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