Waste Audit

For the waste audit students formed groups and gathered trashed from classrooms. Each group was given a bag of trash.


We then weighed the trash, it weighed about five pounds.


We then set up a tarp on the ground and dumped the trash on the tarp.


We then sorted the trash. We created different groups from the trash, this is the food group.


After sorting the trash we weighed the piles. About seventy percent of the trash was paper and plastic materials. The other thirty percent was food scraps.


Classrooms can reduce consumption and disposal of materials by using only the necessary amount and practicing the 4R's. Reduce can be applied to the trash we found by using less paper and not getting things that aren't going to be used. Reuse could be used by using the other side of printed paper for scratch paper or to print something else on it. Recycle can be applied by putting all the recyclable materials, like paper and plastic in the recycling bin. Rot can be used by making compost from all of the food scraps.

The class should focus on diverting paper in the classroom because most of the trash we found consisted of paper and it should have been recycled. In all of the classrooms only a certain amount of paper should be used. Also there should be recycling bins for paper.

Litter Survey

Tennyson students took pictures of areas of the campus before and after lunch then did a survey on the amount of litter. The grassy area between hallways, administration wing, E-hall and quad were all observed. Before lunch there wasn't much litter only a few posters that probably fell down from the wind. Everything seemed nice and clean.

After lunch all areas were littered. There was food scraps, food containers, and other lunch related objects were on the floor. The quad area was the most littered. Here you can see a picture of the quad before lunch and one after lunch. Before lunch there was no litter and the quad looks clean. After lunch you can see there were food containers and bags left on the tables.

This is the quad before lunch

This is the quad after lunch

Me and the 4R's

At home I practice the 4R's by recycling all the recyclable items. We have a separate small bin for these items next to the garbage bin. When the bin gets full we take it out to the curbside bin that the city takes every week. We also practice reduce by not buying useless items and not wasting water and electricity. At home we don't really practice reuse or rot but we do donate old clothes and keep yard trimmings in the green curbside bin. By doing that we help others practice reuse and rot.

SLWRP at THS

I have created this blog as part of the SLWRP which is going on at Tennyson. My purpose is to educate the Tennyson community about waste reduction and motivate them to recycle. We have placed recycling bins around the campus so that the students can recycle. SLWRP is a service learning waste reduction program education people about the 4R's.

The 4R's are: reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot. Reduce is not buying things that are unnecessary and will end up in the garbage in the end. Also using less paper inside the classrooms. Reuse is reusing items instead of throwing them away. Recycling is putting items like paper, plastic, and cardboard in recycling bins. Rot is using items like yard trimmings to make compost that can be used as a fertilizer for our farm plants. Tennyson students need to get involved because it's important to care for the Earth before it's too late.