Major project evaluation - food waste disposal

I have been very fortunate to have a supportive director and centre who also share my vision to be more environmentally sustainable. At a staff meeting we were brainstorming waste disposal methods because our 'gobbler' had stopped working as i previously mentioned. I talked about the corn starch bags that the council had mentioned to us at tafe. I said how they can go into a green waste bin but wasnt sure if they would be cost effective. My director later apporached me and asked if i could investigate the costs of the green waste bin, corn starch bags and the basket. I found out that the baskets were $18 each and you can purchase 75 corn starch bags for $17 from the HUB shop near subway. I went to the city council and found out that the green waste bins are $65 to purchase and $75 for a full years service.

I then passed on this information allong with a brouchure about the corn starch bags and baskets onto my director who took it to the management board. They were very happy with it and we decided to go ahead with it because our other alternative method was relying on people to take home scraps to their chickens, dogs and compost heaps - which is flawed because sometimes people are away or forget to take the scraps and then they have to go in the bin. I have established a worm farm but it is more of a method for educating the children because it will never handle all of our waste - especially not while it doesnt have many worms. We had an icecream container full of worms donated from a staff members Nan but we are in need of more. I intend to ask in our next newsletter if any parents have any at home and would like to donate some worms it would be much appreciated, this will also serve as informing the parents about the worm farm because im sure not many people read my display.

I went to the council earlier this week and paid for and ordered the green bin which was due to be delivered on friday. I purchased two lots of 75 corn starch bags and two baskets. So we are yet to fully implement our new waste disposal method but i believe it will be successful. Our cook said that she used these at the last centre she worked at and they were great.

I have mentioned how i intend to write a section in the newsletter to ask parents for help with getting some more worms. I also informed parents about it through my display out in the foyer. I have not introduced the worm farm to the children yet because i was waiting for it to become more established. As it is i have only had to feed them twice with vegetable peelings - getting more worms should speed up this process. I told the rest of staff about the worm farm at a staff meeting and have had several talks with my director about it and other waste disposal methods. She then talked the board who then decided they liked the corn starch bags.

Overall i have been very happy with my project. I have left an environmentally sustainable waste disposal method in place for the centre to use and it is so easy to use that im sure it will be continued long into the future.. I will continue to watch over the worm farm and once it is more established i will introduce it to the older children (this is more difficult for me because i am usually in the nursery four full days a week) i have drafted a worm farm policy which i will put on a separate blog entry - i have left with my director for her to edit and add to. One the cook left aside some scraps for the worm farm and they had some date slice that was leftover. I gave it to the worms but then took it out a week later when it was all mouldy. I learnt that the worms do not like processed foods and prefer fruit (non citrus) and vegetable scraps more. Ive learnt a lot through my research on worm farms. I didnt know much about the different layers and the things that they dont like to eat.

Although i havent talked to the children about my major project i used my natural experiences as an opportunity to talk to the kindy children about the environment. I talked to them about the trees and how we need to look after them, how they help clean the air that we breathe. We also talked about all the different things that we were gluing on our collages and how we need to look after our world.