Mary Byrne
Every day, a handful of student volunteers stand by two sets of three tall receptacles in the Chenery Upper Elementary School Cafeteria, on hand to answer their peers’ questions about whether an item from their lunch belongs in the recycle bin, the compost bucket, or the trash can.
“I like helping the community and that it’s making a difference,” said 11-year-old Maximus Ruban.
“I love that we’re reducing our waste,” added 12-year-old Cooper Aldy.
Sometimes, the student volunteers, dubbed “Trash Bashers,” catch a recyclable item — like a cardboard box — before it enters the trash. They might also direct students to leave their food on the sharing table at the front of the cafeteria, where students can leave behind untouched food for someone else to take. The volunteers do this in between bites of their lunches.
“It’s a skeleton crew of volunteers – 15 [sixth graders] who are Trash Bashers,” said Ben Ligon, a sixth-grade teacher at Chenery who helped to kickstart the first composting program in the school district. “These are kids who are passionate about making a difference, who want to take action.”
Arthur Guo, 12, said there are more videos now than before for people to learn about recycling and composting.
“You feel like you’re doing something that’s worth it,” Arthur said. “You’re not just wasting your time.”
The composting program began several years ago when a handful of parents were interested in exploring the possibility of implementing a composting program in Belmont Public Schools. Chenery was identified as the pilot school, and Ligon was tapped to implement the program.
“I reached out and got teachers in fifth, seventh, and eighth grade to manage and recruit volunteers in other grades,” he recalled. “It’s not a very exciting thing, but it’s valued.”
Once collected in the cafeteria, composted materials are picked up by Black Earth Compost. In its first year, the program was funded with the help of a referral program, according to Julie Wu, who founded the nonprofit Belmont Composts in 2017. For each subscription, residents could donate their $10 referral discount to Chenery. Wu said more than 1,200 households in Belmont have signed up, amounting to roughly 5.1 tons of compost per week.
Ligon said in the years he’s overseen the program, he recalls very few times the materials were unable to be collected.
“Even though kids, or humans, mess up, it’s a pretty good reflection [of the program],” he said.
The program “fell apart” during COVID and only recently re-launched, he said, after he reached out to interim Principal Barbara O’Brien about getting it off the ground again.
“This is one step in a more sustainable direction,” Ligon said. “It costs some money, but there are costs to not doing it.”
The composting program at Chenery is part of a wider effort Ligon has been involved in around waste management at the school. In 2000, he noticed the Belmont schools weren’t recycling, so he reached out to the town and arranged for recycling trucks to pick up paper. First, they only picked up white paper, but in a few years the program expanded to include colored paper, too.
“I’ve always been someone who cares about our planet and cares about our environment,” Ligon said. “That’s something that was instilled in me by my parents.”
Ligon said he’s hopeful to see the composting efforts at Chenery replicated in other schools, so as to take on a more systematic approach to waste management in the district. At the high school, composting is picked up once per week, but given there is no oversight at the compost bucket, it’s often subject to contamination. This effort is largely overseen by two students in the Climate Action Group, but they aren’t able to monitor the bins throughout the week.
“I do feel like this is something that would be wonderful if we did it in all schools, especially the younger schools because you’re trying to change their behavior,” Ligon said. “It’s harder to change 12-year-old behavior than 5-year-old behavior.”
Wu said she is working with the district on implementing a curriculum similar to the one at Chenery. All the administrators she has spoken with appear receptive, she said, but budget constraints are a factor.
As a first step, the district is considering introducing composting into the kitchens before delving into the lunchroom itself. Handouts might also be distributed to schools, letting principals know how they can implement composting in their schools if they’re interested.
But it’s all very much in the early stages, she said.
“I think the idea of composting is, in some ways, a no-brainer,” Wu said. “It’s an easy way to be green and to mitigate climate change.”
