This winter, Sustainability Club students with Sierra Watershed Educational Partnerships conducted lunch waste audits at Kings Beach, Tahoe Lake, Truckee, and Glenshire elementary schools, as well as North Tahoe School and Sierra Expeditionary Learning School, weighing the amounts of organic and inorganic waste resulting from school and home-packed lunches during mealtimes. They wanted to know just how much food waste was being produced.
The audits were part of a SWEP initiative to work with the Truckee Tahoe Unified School District to become compliant with California’s new waste diversion and carbon reduction requirements by diverting organic waste from landfills and reducing carbon emissions in TTUSD schools.