Middlebrook

Through an auditing process during the 2016-2017 school year, it was determined that on average 40% of the waste in the cafeteria was made up of materials that could have been composted or recycled. We have been putting approximately 6 tons of organic matter into the waste stream during a school year and throwing away 3 tons of items that could have been recycled. This is something we can fix!!!

Middlebrook was the pilot program for all three arms of the Zero Waste Initiative.

• Compost - You may not know this but you can now compost items such as chicken bones and ham sandwiches. A new high heat technology allows for those types of organic food products to be "cooked" with other traditionally compostable items.

  • Curbside Compost is a local organic's recycling company who is contracted to pick up the food waste from our cafeteria. They take the food waste to a large facility in Danbury, CT that turns our food waste into usable compost for gardeners and farmers.

• Recycling - Recycling is changing in CT. Learn how and follow Recycle CT's "What's In. What's Out".

• Food rescue and donation - Food Rescue US is an organization you can work with to help move food from your school to an pantry in need.