Every month, every United States citizen throws away more than 20 pounds of food, on average. This means that roughly 30 to 40% of the food supply is wasted, which supports the United Nations Environmental Programme’s statistic that “organic waste is the second highest component of landfills.” But what if there was an environmentally friendly way to reduce organic waste–one that was easy too? There is! Composting.

What is composting you might ask? It is basically nature’s form of recycling. Composting allows organic material (like apple rinds and that half of a sandwich that you did not finish) to break down into rich soil. It is an easy way to fulfill your New Year’s Resolution of being more sustainable. As of the new year, John Jay High School has begun composting through the Sustainability Club.

“Wait, there’s a compost bin in our cafeteria?” said Tara Heneghan when asked about the recent addition of John Jay High School’s compost bin. Yes! There is! In addition to recycling, John Jay High School is now offering composting.

With the average person generating 4.3 pounds of waste every day, according to Duke University, it is crucial that the human race begins to look at more sustainable ways to live. The Sustainability Club was determined to make our high school a more environmentally friendly place.

“Every other school in the district has had composting implemented in their cafeterias for a while now,” said Sustainability Club treasurer Hailey Ivey. It has been a long process to get the bins to the school, Ivey added. The process began early in the school year.

Composting at John Jay High School still has a way to go until it is thoroughly integrated into the lives of students. Unfortunately, the bins have not been running as expected. Both Ivey and club member, Izzy Tway agree that there have been problems with people mistaking the compost bins for waste baskets. “We had trouble with it at first because people were throwing trash in them,” said Tway.

In order to combat that common mistake, the Sustainability Club is planning to make signs to explain the purpose of the bins and teach students how to properly compost.

Sustainability club meets every other Friday in room C108.