Did you know that wipes can be composted? I didn’t! Matthew, Andrew, Colin, Henry, and Chloe S., my friends at Keys School, have started a project to help people with composting. Usually at my school, there is too much trash and recyclable objects in the compost bins, so we can never actually compost. That’s a big problem! Everyday of the school week except for Wednesday, my friends will stand by the compost, trash, and recycling bins to tell people eating lunch, where to put their food and other scraps. My friends also told us we could lend a hand. I love helping out with projects, so I gladly volunteered!

Now that’s not the only fun part. We also get to pass out stickers that say, “I helped Keys School compost!” One time on Wednesday, we had the day off, but still checked the bins. They were actually pretty good even without our help! We could tell people were learning. Since 3-4 grade’s lunch area is separate from K-2 grade’s, we help K-2 grade for two days and do the same for 3-4 grade. Share the help equally! I can tell you something that isn’t equal: the liking of the stickers and the amount wasted in all grades. Let’s start with K-2 grade!

While K-2 grade loves stickers, I think they really need to eat their food! Whenever I am patrolling K-2 grade’s trash cans, I always see little kids throwing away whole yogurt parfaits or sun butter sandwiches. “What a waste,” I always think. Meanwhile, I think that little kids love stickers so much that they often ask for another one! It’s always super fun handing out stickers because you get to see the small kids’ faces light up when they receive it! I did notice something about K-2 grade when eating lunch. They eat more when lunch is packed from home. This is probably because they can get the food of their choice when packing home lunch. Get packing moms!

You would think that 3-4 grade is similar to K-2 grade, but in some ways, they are the complete opposite. First, they usually eat all their food except for my friend Saskia, who dumped out half of her veggies! Secondly, they don’t take stickers as much because they’re a little older and have grown out of them. It makes sense, but we still hand out stickers because we want people to know that they are helping Keys School!

Composting really helps the environment, so if you ever are about throw something away, think, “Is this compostable?”