Eliminating waste starts in the kitchen, says Green School SA ahead of Zero Waste week in South Africa; the children even got to take part in sharing how it is done.
Paarl, South Africa (02 September 2022) – In support of the annual, global Zero Waste Week campaign, which runs from 5 – 9 September, Green School South Africa will be sharing its successes in eliminating waste and innovative solutions to reduce and recycle waste at schools, businesses, households and the environment.
Green School South Africa is a ‘zero-waste-to-landfill’ school situated in the Drakenstein Valley in Paarl in the Western Cape, and has become an inspirational model for scores of other public and private schools. It has created a true circular food economy that works, from which Green School South Africa children can contribute to and learn from, on a daily basis.
During Zero Waste Week, the school will be sharing the successes experienced in the operation of its school kitchen, as well as creative ways of problem-solving and coming up with innovative solutions to the many challenges they have faced.
“Our biggest success so far is how our kitchen operates; from our menu planning, to what we buy, how it is delivered, served, sold, collected, sorted for recycling or composted,” says Madelein Roets, Head of Food. The key motivation behind this – and one of the school’s founding principles – is eliminating food waste.
It is estimated that in South Africa, 10 million tonnes of food ends up in landfills. According to the Worldwide Fund For Nature (WWF), fruits, vegetables and cereals account for 70% of the wastage and loss primarily throughout the food supply chain – from farm to fork. Green School South Africa has significantly reduced the distance between the farm and its kitchen where both organic food waste and food packaging like egg boxes, are ploughed back as compost. Fresh produce from the school garden supplies the kitchen, while organic waste is composted on site in a Bokashi Bin, in turn nourishing the garden soil to produce more organic food. This generates a closed circulatory system that reuses, recycles and regenerates. The visibility of this regenerative cycle is in turn incorporated into the school curriculum.
The Zero Waste Week campaign recognises the enormous value that reducing and recycling waste creates and how localised circular economies can address important societal challenges relating to food security, health, our environment and climate change. During the week-long campaign, South Africans will be motivated and encouraged to relook their food consumption, procurement options and opportunities for turning food waste into resources, as well as reduce their use of synthetic materials and plastic packaging.
Encouraging zero trips to the landfill.
The school maintains a net-positive contribution to landfill sites in the Valley. Landfill sites release harmful emissions into the atmosphere that drive climate change. By helping the surrounding community reduce their waste and divert from landfills Green School South Africa really lives up to its intention of being regenerative and not only zero impact.
Peter Joubert, Head of Recycling, says achieving zero waste can be tricky despite the low hanging fruits. “A significant amount of research goes into our evolving strategy. The goal posts are always shifting and new ways of achieving these ideals are constantly emerging. Staying abreast of innovative sustainability solutions to reduce our waste as far as humanly possible remains a core part of our work and is reflected back into what is taught in the classroom – thus creating environmentally conscious and knowledgeable future leaders,” he says.
“Our successes are the result of many hours of research, collaboration between our Green School South Africa team and suppliers, as well as creative ways of problem solving and coming up with innovative solutions to the many challenges we have faced,” says Green School South Africa co-founder Alba Brandt. “Sharing these solutions and saving other schools, restaurants and organisations the time and effort, is a real highlight for us!”
Learnings from Green School South Africa
Veg out at lunchtime. Green School South Africa serves a cooked, wholefood, vegetarian lunch to around 200 children and 50 adults every single day, packed with salads, oven-roasted vegetables, school-baked breads and seasonal fruit. A vegetarian kitchen helps in many ways when it comes to limiting waste by avoiding significant ‘unavoidable’ packaging such as plastic and styrofoam, and secondly to enable a ‘clean’ composting system.
Grow your own produce. The school’s gardens not only produce a variety of fresh vegetables, herbs and fruit, but also play a major role in teaching the concept of a circular economy1 to children from a young age.
Buy fresh produce packaging-free. Buying at your local greengrocer and transporting it home in a wooden box goes a long way to reducing waste. Green School South Africa has worked in partnership with suppliers to buy fresh produce packaging-free. The fruit and vegetables that are sourced from local farms, arrive on campus in wooden boxes. There is no polystyrene, cling-wrap or plastic in sight. Green School South Africa also advocates buying bulk dry foods to limit packaging.
Compost and recycle. Sort waste in your kitchen: Peels, left overs and compostable packaging can go into the compost bin, while recyclable packaging can be cleaned and separated into the recycling bin. The correct sorting can be instilled in families and organisations, but requires education and discipline.
Avoid food waste. The best way to do this is to cook delicious food in precisely the right quantity. Of course, any mom knows that the definition of ‘delicious’ is not even consistent within one household, let alone over 200 children! To avoid food waste, the Green School kitchen has devised different meal plans for each age group, with food dished up for the kindergarten children and buffet style for Grade 1 and upwards. After a meal, all children take their plates and scrape them clean into a tub. The contents of this tub then goes into the Bokashi Bin in preparation for composting.
“Being confronted each day with the tub of food scraps, makes the children aware of waste and how much is being generated. Wasted food equals wasted water and energy that were used to produce it,” says Joubert. “By implementing simple practices in our schools, homes, businesses and other institutions we can divert landfill waste and create net positive effects for the environment, nature and people.”
Green School South Africa is the third in a growing network of schools around the world that educates for sustainability through community-integrated, entrepreneurial learning in a natural environment. The network was founded in Bali in 2008, and also includes a school in New Zealand and another school that will open its doors in Mexico this year. The school grounds incorporate extensive vegetable gardens, fruit forests, medicinal gardens and herbal corridors, and the landscaping was designed to rehabilitate the ecology of the site and reintroduce biodiversity.
For more information on Green School South Africa visit www.greenschoolsa.co.za, contact admin@greenschoolsa.co.za and follow Green School South Africa on Instagram @greenschoolsa and like them on Facebook @greenschoolsouthafrica.
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