![Page 1: John Jose Audit of Harwood Union School Cafeteria Waste](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022042807/6268ad2a3551865bb8037d33/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Example Audit of aSchool Cafeteria Waste
for 1 day of lunches
Findings and Observations/Recommendations
Conducted by John Jose, School Zero Waste Coordinator Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District
November 28, 2018
![Page 2: John Jose Audit of Harwood Union School Cafeteria Waste](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022042807/6268ad2a3551865bb8037d33/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Lunch-generated food waste from compost buckets:
42 lbs. food waste manually examined, handful-by-handful. Virtually no contam-ination found, with the exception of whole fruit PLU stickers. This lack of contam-ination of school food scraps, collected in cafeteria food scrap buckets, is a posi-tive and consistent finding in CVSWMD schools.
![Page 3: John Jose Audit of Harwood Union School Cafeteria Waste](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022042807/6268ad2a3551865bb8037d33/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Lunch-generated food waste from food waste buckets (cont’d): 7.2 lbs. whole (or nearly whole)
fruit found in a total of 42 lbs. of food waste, representing 17% of total food waste in compost buckets.
Establishment of a “share station” could help address the issue of whole apples ending up in cafeteria food scrap buckets.
Taking a look at why students are taking, then disposing of so many apples in food scrap buckets would also be warranted.
![Page 5: John Jose Audit of Harwood Union School Cafeteria Waste](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022042807/6268ad2a3551865bb8037d33/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
13.7 lb.s Caf. Trash - Post-sorting3.25 lbs. food waste found mixed with trash, representing 24% of total trash. This amount of food waste found is comparable to the expected +/- 33%, by weight, of food scraps typically found in school cafeteria trash.
Small amount of recycling found.
~ 125 milk cartons found with a weight of 4.4 lbs., or 32% of total caf trash, by weight. This illustrates the significant portion milk cartons can comprise in school cafeteria waste streams, and suggests a significant reduction in school weight/volume of trash can be achieved by replacing carton milk with bulk milk. Cost savings can also be realized with less milk waste potentially produced.
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Recycling found in trash (left side) vs. recycling found in recycling receptacle*
*The presence of a Compost Monitor at this school’s cafeteria sorting station accounts for the clean, rinsed single-use, plastic recyclables collected in the cafeteria sort station recycling bin. From a sustainability/effective recycling perspective, this makes the argument for a school to have a Compost Monitor in place, at a cafeteria sorting station during lunches, to rinse recyclables.