Henderson County Public Schools’ Composting Program for Food Scraps and Compostable Foodservice Packaging Enhanced

A year of progress in redefining school waste management through compostable packaging.

August 7, 2024

In 2019, the Henderson County Solid Waste Division launched a pilot composting program across six elementary schools within the Henderson County Public School District, involving nearly 2,800 students. Students actively participated in sorting their lunch waste into designated trash and compost bins. The program aimed to reduce the amount of food scraps that would be destined for the landfill, and instead divert those nutrient-rich food scraps for composting. In addition to food scraps, the county’s school composting program includes items like compostable paper trays, containers and napkins. The inclusion of these compostable items in the program assists in capturing more food scraps into the compost collection containers and further reduces quantities of landfilled packaging material.

To support this effort, Henderson County Solid Waste and Henderson County Schools partnered with the Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI), the trade association for the foodservice packaging industry in North America that plays an active role in the recovery of foodservice packaging items. Today, FPI and Henderson County Schools are excited to share the success of the initiative, highlighting the significant strides made in waste diversion within the school community.

"The pilot composting program diverted 38.27 tons in 2021-2022 and 47.64 tons in 2022-2023. However, some non-compostable items were mistakenly included, while compostable items like fiber trays and napkins were discarded," explained Robert Rolfe, Henderson County Public Schools Director of Child Nutrition. "Partnering with FPI has helped us reinforce handling protocols for organics and packaging, streamlining an effective program for students and staff."

To assist the schools in engaging their facilities staff, teachers, and students to adopt new habits, FPI provided Henderson County Schools a communications grant that was used to provide crucial support throughout various stages of the program. Initially, the grant facilitated the creation of training materials for cafeteria and custodian staff. Back-of-house training and over-bin signage were implemented to ensure that those integral to the program understood the importance of proper waste sorting.

As the program evolved, FPI's communications grant expanded its support to engage students and teachers directly. This included the development of a Teacher Training Guide, over-bin signs in the cafeteria with kid-friendly messaging, and vibrant stickers for kids designed to inspire active participation in waste diversion. The stickers featured a "Super Sorter" superhero theme to inject an element of fun into the educational process. Some schools also plan to introduce creative elements, such as compost pledge walls and colorful trackers, showcasing the school's progress towards their contamination reduction goal.

"We were excited to partner with Henderson County Solid Waste and Henderson County Public Schools in FPI’s first school composting partnership to boost their composting program,” said Natha Dempsey, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute. “The school district’s success demonstrates that a well-designed composting program for food scraps and packaging can offer a significant opportunity to reduce materials going to landfills while educating students about the importance of waste diversion.”

Through these communication interventions, both students and staff have the knowledge to accurately sort their waste. FPI worked with Henderson County to conduct a waste audit prior to the partnership launch and a second audit this spring to characterize the types and quantities of different materials now being captured in the separate streams. This information will yield insights into additional approaches that might further underpin program performance. Analysis of the results from the second audit is currently underway.

Henderson County Public Schools is committed to perpetuating the success of the county’s composting program pilot, placing a continued emphasis on integrating compostable foodservice packaging items into their waste diversion efforts. Henderson County Solid Waste funds the program and oversees the collection and management of the school district's food waste, including its transport to a county-run compost facility. To learn more about Henderson County’s sustainability initiatives, please visit: HCRecycles.org.