Composting is a fundamental garden and science activity and a way to recycle garden and kitchen waste while producing valuable soil amendments. Another method is vermicomposting using worms to do the composting. Throughout the building, you can see vermicomposting in action as well as students taking a daily trip to the dining hall to pick up scraps for our rooftop compost bin. Both types of composting allow for students to understand the concepts and benefits of composting in a very “hands-on” way as they add composting materials from garden waste to lunch plate scraps and kitchen leftovers.

Food and paper decompose by themselves in nature. They are, however, the two largest components in landfills, accounting for nearly 50% of all municipal solid waste. There is more food and paper in landfills than diapers, Styrofoam, and tires — combined. According to the US EPA, food waste is the #1 least recycled material. Here at St. Philip’s we make sure nothing is wasted and everything is recycled.

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