It’s lunchtime at Wilson Middle School and the cafeteria is loud with the clamor of student chatter, busy with constant movement. The school-provided meal is themed “Breakfast for Lunch Day,” and kids who haven’t brown bagged it are dining on fluffy waffles topped with syrup, with a side of fruit. On their way back to class, the 5th-8th graders make their way over to bins and commence participation in the 4-week old WMS composting program.

Whatever is left over on their trays, they sort for proper disposal. Items such as plastics, styrofoam containers, tin foil, and wax-coated paper plates go into the trash en route to a landfill. But thanks to the school’s new composting program, food scraps, soiled paper products, and certified compostable tableware go into bins lined with compostable bags. From there, Black Earth Compost comes to the school weekly to collects the food waste, which it turns into nutrient-rich compost.

Wilson Middle School, Natick — Wilson Middle School 8th graders Jojo Flynn (left) and Lily Wheeler have spearheaded a cafeteria composting program.

Black Earth is the company that provides weekly composting collection services to over 1,200 participating residential properties in town, at a rate of $115 per year. If 1,500 Natick customers enroll, the price will drop to $90 per year for all participants, so consider signing up. There’s an option to have some of your food waste returned to you in the form of black gold. The company operates three compost sites in Massachusetts—in Groton, Framingham, and Manchester-by-the Sea.

It took the leadership efforts of two WMS 8th graders to move the needle forward. Jojo Flynn and Lily Wheeler knew the local infrastructure was in place to accommodate a composting program at Wilson. After all, hundreds of Natick households were involved, plus the high school already had a successful composting program. They wondered why their school wasn’t doing the same. So Jojo and Lily took the issue up with school administration and got in contact with Natick’s Director of Sustainability, Jillian Wilson-Martin. It turns out the support was there, but the initiative needed a push from conservation-minded activists ready to get involved.

Once Jojo, Lily, and Jillian partnered, the wheels were set in motion. Jillian used her grant-writing expertise to secure financing for the initiative. “The middle school program is funded by a grant,” Jillian said. “The collection costs are funded through MassDEP, so the town doesn’t incur any costs of the program.”

Organizers report that their peers are all in. “It’s going really well. Everybody seems to be sticking to the rules and people are really enthusiastic about it,” Jojo said.

To make sure that trash doesn’t co-mingle with compostable materials, educational signage has been placed at most cafeteria tables, and attached to pillars near the food waste separation area. In addition, the Library Advisement Committee, a before-school club, has increased awareness by creating posters that hang in high-traffic areas around the school. Finally, parent volunteers are on hand to help out.

What about an ick factor among peers? “We haven’t seen a lot of that, Lily said. “We were expecting a lot worse. People are just excited about it, and it’s good to see that interest because that means everything will keep going here next year when we go to the high school.”

“It’s students that make this stuff happen, so the passion of Lily and Jojo is really what’s making this possible,” Jillian said. “A lot of other schools have expressed interest in composting, but you need a team at the school to make it happen, and that’s what they’ve been able to do here.”

More on food waste

According to the Natick DPW on the town’s website, “Food waste accounts for 40% of Natick’s residential trash. Over the years, the Town of Natick has worked to help residents reduce and repurpose their food waste, and encourages residents to compost organic material at home or through a curbside composting program.”

Here’s what happens when food waste goes down the garbage disposal: Natick is part of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) Wastewater System. The town’s wastewater is discharged into the MWRA’s collection sewers, which flows to the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Facility, located on one of the Boston Harbor islands. From there, the wastewater is treated, and recycled solids are delivered to a sludge treatment facility in Quincy on the Fore River where it is heat treated into fertilizer. That’s quite a road trip for carrot and potato peelings when really they don’t need to stray far from home at all.

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Of course, whatever you don’t dare put down the disposal (chicken and meat bones; fatty foods) goes from your trash into a landfill.

If you’re thinking of backyard composting, the town sells home composting bins for $25. They are lightweight, easy to assemble, and rodent proof. Each comes with composting instructions. The bins are made of 100% recycled detergent bottles and hold one cubic yard of material. They are available at the DPW, 75 West St., during normal business hours.

Backyard compost piles can include materials such as raw fruit and vegetable trimmings, coffee grounds, egg shells, lawn clippings and leaves, all which will break down to form an earthy-smelling soil enrichment material.

Never add meat, bones, fatty foods such as cheese, grease or cooking oil, dog feces, cat litter, or diseased plants to your backyard composting operation. Either let Black Earth take care of those for you, or put those materials in the trash instead.

At our house, we have been committed back yard composters for many years and have a nifty double-chamber composting tumbler going behind the shed. In one chamber, I put my spring/summer kitchen scraps. In the other chamber, in go my fall/winter scraps. Right now, my fall/winter scraps have piled up, while my spring/summer scraps have entirely broken down. Pretty soon I’ll take out all that beautiful organic matter from the spring/summer side of the tumbler and use it in my garden.