Kern County Schools toss out seven tons of food a day with school lunch programs. Now, several schools are taking that food waste and recycling it for farmers.
Just to give you an idea, seven tons a day is about the size of one room. 21 schools in the Kern County area are taking part in this green waste program. Food that used to go in the trash, filling up landfills, is now going to farm fields to save space and help the environment.
During lunch, so much food leaves the cafeteria table and ends up in the trash as waste. Now, Franklin Middle School joins about two dozen other schools in the Central Valley that are taking bold steps to encourage recycling.
Mikenzee Smith says, "It feels good cause you are helping the environment cause you are cleaning up the garbage so you can help the trees grow."
Parker Douglas says, "When we recycle they sometimes can use that to make other things. It's good for our environment."
Students seem to be getting the message. On the bins, they'll find a sign with labels letting them know exactly where the unwanted food goes.
Solid Waste Director, Kevin Barnes says, "We had a lot of food that was going to the landfill cause kids don't always finish the food." Now Barnes says, the food waste helps local farmers in the area once it's broken down into compost. "Organics mean the food plus the paper wrappers and the dirty napkins and the paper cups with ice in them sometimes. We can compost all that and put it on the soil in the farms."
It has cut down on travel time and fuel taking the trash 15 miles away to landfills, and it saves space in those landfills.
"Finally the compost ends up saving the farmers water, the more compost they can put in their fields, the less compost they have to use and the world needs to save water."
Barnes says restaurants aren't doing food recycling yet, but now that schools are taking part, hopefully more will.
Next year, the city will start looking at restaurants to take part too.
