In all school districts, a lot of waste is being produced.  Whether that’s food waste, classroom waste, or just extra trash, all school districts have it.  This also applies in the City of St Charles School District, but in order to combat this a science club, which promotes environmental-friendly activities, was formed.

This year, the science club has decided to invest in a vermicomposter.  A vermicomposter takes waste and makes it into a paste that can be used for the environment.  This has the potential of becoming a huge help to the school, whether it deals with lunch food or extraneous waste from various classes in the future.

“It (vermicomposter) is beneficial to compost food waste because it allows the matter to decompose aerobically and release carbon dioxide, rather than decomposing anaerobically and releasing methane. When food scraps are sent to the landfill, they are covered with lots of other things that prohibit oxygen from reaching the waste. This creates anaerobic decomposition, and this is a problem that is threatening the state of our Earth”, says senior science club member for the last four years Betsy McCune.

With a project as new and as helpful as the vermicomposter, a lot of planning and preparation was necessary for its success.

“We started this project with lots of research. We looked at different types of composting, what materials are needed, what environment it needs to be in, how to implement it in a school, and much more. Once we decided on vermicomposting, we did a small scale experiment with composting in small containers. This helped us know how the composting process works and how to take care of the worms in the best way. By second semester, we were ready to implement vermicomposting in our school. After getting approval from Dr. Voelkl, we were finally able to purchase the composting bin from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm. Now, as the year comes to an end, we have the vermicomposting set up and in action,” says senior science club member Betsy McCune.

With the investment of the composter, the plans and preparation for the future are in full swing.

“Our plan for next year is to collect food that was not sold during lunches from the cafeteria, and our hope is to be able to implement our vermicomposting throughout the entire school. We are so excited to help our school become more environmentally friendly, and we are looking forward to making even more positive change in the years to come!”, says McCune. 

Any St. Charles West student who is interested in joining science club and helping out the school, please contact [email protected]!