Environmental Gardening Club

Compost and Grey-Water Garden

By: Andrew Mellor

Overview

The goal of the program is to plant a large garden around the school using only resources from the building itself. This will be achieved with a composting and grey-water reuse system for the entire school. A grey water reuse system collects leftover sink or drinking fountain water from the building, along with other non-sewage water. It either distributes it to a garden or puts it into a tank to later be collected. The program will also use composted food waste from the lunch room to support the garden in order to reduce food waste from the school.

Grey-Water Pump

The initial cost of the pump would be rather expensive, adding up to between $1,680 and $2,240 for the grey-water pump.

The pump would recycle unused grey-water. (Water from the sinks, drinking fountains, showers and dishwashers in the school). To water a new garden planted near the School itself.

Compost Bins

Will be relatively inexpensive to make costing only $300-$360 for the cheapest alternative

Thirty bins will be created by either the Environmental Gardening Club or Woodshop/Metalworking classes

These will be used to compost leftover lunchroom food to be used as fertilizer in the soil

Five trash bins will placed in the cafeteria to collect fruit and vegetable waste to be used in composting costing about $300

The Garden

The plants would be year-round variety meaning that they will not have to be replaced every year or season to keep the garden functioning

100 seed packets of this type would cost about $200, however these seed packets will last a very long time meaning that purchasing more will be unnecessary for at least a few years

Funding

The total cost of the program will be $2,580 to $3840. depending on what grey-water pump you choose to use

The funding will be relatively easy. For example everyone in the school donating only two dollars could purchase the pump and all other materials for the cheaper alternative. If everyone where to give five dollars it would completely pay for the expensive option and maintain it for up to 17 years.

(More information on how this was figured out is in the paper)

Maintenance

The Maintenance of this program is incredibly cheap. Maintaining the pump costs only $200 per year and maintaining the garden would actually cost nothing for the first few years.

Also the program will most likely have a lot of left over money to maintain the garden to future fund-raisers will be unnecessary for a long time. (More information in paper)

Environmental Gardening Club

The Environmental Gardening club will be a club created in order to maintain the garden

The Environmental Gardening club would be relatively simple to form, with BVW’s emphasis on community service hours. As the work in the garden is valid community service. They would post signs for membership and even promote it on Jagged Edge.

Once formed the club will plant the garden, and after school collect the compost from the cafeteria. Aside from that the garden can actually take care of itself aside from spreading fertilizer which will be done by the club.

Environmental Impact

Reduces water waste by 50%

Can reduce food waste by up to 50%

Many more plants around the property

Citations

Ferguson, D. (2014, July 21). Can greywater reuse reduce water bills? Retrieved May 2, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/21/greywater-systems-can-they-really-reduce-your-bills

 

Eartheasy. (2015, May 2). Retrieved May 2, 2015, from http://eartheasy.com/grow_compost.html (Publishication Date and Author Unknown)

 

18 Cool DIY Compost Bin Designs. (2013, June 21). Retrieved May 2, 2015, from http://compostguide.com/18-cool-diy-compost-bin-designs/

 

Yearbook club, B. (2014). Illuminate volume 13 (Vol. 13). Overland Park, Kansas: Blue Valley West.

 

How Many Calories in a School Lunch? (n.d.). Retrieved May 2, 2015, from http://www.diet-blog.com/09/how_many_calories_in_a_school_lunch_box.php

 

Annual Flower Seeds & Plants - Buy & Grow Flowers, Bulbs - Burpee.com - Burpee.com. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2, 2015, from http://www.burpee.com/flowers/

 

How Much Waste Can You Save by Composting? (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2015, from http://homeguides.sfgate.com/much-waste-can-save-composting-78547.html

 

ChooseMyPlate.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2015, from http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

FIN