by Abbie Pietruszynski, Resource Conservation Volunteer in CCSD 46
In Illinois, Community Consolidated School District 46 (CCSD46) has a board policy stating the need for reducing waste throughout the district. As CCSD46 began to research composting lunchroom waste to help meet this policy objective, they were able to partner with the Village’s residential program for food waste pickup. With the help of sustainability consultant BrightBeat, the district piloted lunchroom composting with students at the first school in April 2024, with weekly pickup made possible with the residential trucks.
CCSD46 is a public school district with seven schools serving 3,600 students from seven communities in Lake County, Illinois. In order to pilot the program at the first building, a staff member was assigned as the Staff Compost Champion who created both educational and logistical components prior to launch in coordination with Operations and building staff. In the two weeks prior to launch, students and staff watched an educational video produced by Zero Waste Schools and practiced sorting pre-cleaned lunchroom waste via “Sorting Boxes”. Library programming supplemented their learning through non-fiction books about real-world waste problems and how communities solved them. Students also learned the difference between organic and inorganic waste to help with sorting.
As the launch date approached, two students from each class were trained to be Student Compost Ambassadors so they could help with the lunchroom sorting process. These students received an official badge and could skip to the front of the lunch line in order to finish eating early. They helped in different roles such as Wrapper Ranger, Drink Deputy, and Compost Captain. The Student Compost Ambassador job rotates through the class like other classroom jobs.
The Staff Compost Champion worked with custodians to identify the best setup for both sorting stations, doing a waste audit both before and after launch, and coordinating materials with Operations such as compostable bags, lunch trays, and sporks. Parent volunteers were identified to help during the first weeks in the lunchroom. The waste audit revealed that after launch, the weight of landfill garbage was reduced by around 90%. The rest was recycled or composted.
The remaining six schools in CCSD46 were successfully launched between August 2024 and January 2025. A district Resource Conservation Volunteer worked with Staff Compost Champions and custodians at each school, coordinating needed materials and volunteers, and helping during the first weeks of each school’s launch and with waste audits. The data collected from the waste audits across the district has projected that over the course of a school year, over 100,000 pounds of food waste will be diverted from the landfill!