Compost Education Program

Lansing School District

Since 1997, Michigan Energy Options has worked closely with the City of Lansing’s Waste Reduction Services to provide compost education programs in Lansing Schools. These programs introduce and reinforce the concepts of recycling, sustainability, and provide a better understanding of our waste cycles, and how food waste fits into the picture.

Forest View students and teachers adding worms to their new bin

The compost education program delivers its message using worms. Worms provide an interactive way for children to learn the concepts of recycling food waste that we would normally throw away. The compost education program includes 85 worm presentations that are given in K-5 classrooms where a working worm bin is built by the class. Students learn about how worms “eat our garbage” and recycle it into rich compost that can be used to grow more food in the school’s garden or maintain the grounds and landscaping.

Follow up sessions take place a few months after the initial presentation allowing the students to explore how the bin has changed, and how their worms have been working hard on the food scraps they have added. The “food web of the compost pile” is introduced, and the class gets to see some of the organisms that help the worms turn food scraps into compost!

Observing the Cumberland worm bin

Each year the program reaches over one thousand students, with over 1,800 students and 50 teachers participating in the 2008 – 2009 school year.

In addition to the in-classroom presentations, the compost education program also works with 6 elementary schools to coordinate their mid-scale vermicomposting programs. Participating schools include Cumberland, Averill, Post Oak, Woodcreek, the Beekman Center, and most recently, Forest View Elementary. Each mid-scale bin can process hundreds of pounds of cafeteria food waste per year! Students assist in collecting the food scraps, weighing the amount, and keeping weekly records of the food waste collected. During the 2008 – 2009 school year, over 1,500 pounds of waste were fed to the worms instead of sent to a landfill!

To learn more about this program, or to host a classroom presentation, please contact Becky Jo at (517) 337-0422 ext. 303