Weekly service popcorn made by the biogas plant. By: The author

I am noticing more and more efforts to improve the school environment, one of which is my service group’s combat with the food waste on campus. To resolve the problem of food waste, we hanged a food waste bin in the canteen so that we can collect the leftovers and transform them into cooking energy through biogass. This way, we can reduce the ecological footprint and even take advantage out of it.

A fruitful (?) bucket of food waste after lunch. By: The author

The challenge, however, is to raise school’s awareness on the newly added bucket. I drafted a notice on daily bulletin with Mr.Lockwood’s help, and I started to see more and more food waste in the bin (LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience). I was really glad to notice the involvement of primary kids in this project as well. The problem we’ve encountered recently was that there were still certain students unwilling to drop their food in the bucket instead of the original bin. For now, we are considering removing the green bin, but that’s also preventing students from throwing away bones. A comprehensive and effective solution for this situation is needed (LO1. Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth). During the starting weeks, it was Stefan and I, and Mr.Lockwood’s afternoon DP2 Geo class taking responsibility of scraping the bowls in the canteen and tranferring the food waste from the bin to the biogas plant in the afternoon (LO4: Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences) . Then, during our Eco Committee meeting, we finalized a rotating schedule of R&S, Eco School, Housing For Habitat, and Ms.Harrison’s service.

My dear biogas plant. By: The author

Using the fuled biogas plant, I was able to make popcorns for almost every session of my service group (sometimes for the Eco-School as well). This greatly engaged my group members into helping the environment and was a great strategy to even attract more people. I was also assisting Stefan in his collaborative project with the PSGAs, where we experimented more kinds of instant food, such as hot chocolate, which we brought to our own service later as well. The disposal of the foodwaste no longer is time or labor consuming; instead, it is becoming a renewable energy source that contributes to the campus environment (LO6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance).

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