Classroom waste audit

2 points

A waste audit is essentially an assessment of what your school is throwing away. Conducting a waste audit is a great way to evaluate the types and quantities of waste being generated at a school and learn about how you may be able to be more environmentally friendly.

​

There are many different methods for performing a waste audit and this is only one method to visually assess what is being disposed of in your classroom. By simply looking into your waste containers, you will be able to notice several things about your landfill trash, classroom paper recycling and commingle recycling:

​

• Are we putting the right materials in the correct container?

• How much waste are we generating?

• Could we do a better job sorting our waste?

• Are we contaminating our recycling?

​

Challenge: ​Gather students and have them look in the garbage to determine if there is anything that could have been recycled, composted or reused.

​

After students have gone through the waste station have then answer the following questions:

​​

1. What kinds of waste was in the garbage?

2. Are there recyclable or compostable materials in the landfill trash?

3.  What could we have done to reduce the amount of garbage?

​

To receive points, please submit photos and student responses to Education@solidwasteauthority.org

​

​

​​

​