Hawaii Student Takes On Trash For Senior Project
It is traditional for high school seniors to leave behind a gift for the classes that will come after them.
As his personal gift to the Hawaii public school system, senior David Miyamoto hopes to tally up the amount of trash put out by public schools — and then reduce it.
The 18-year-old from Kaneohe has drafted a asking the Hawaii Department of Education to determine how much waste is produced by the schools on average and to create a pilot program that would reduce that amount by 40 percent by the year 2025. The resolution is part of Miyamoto’s senior project, which is focused on sustainability and reducing waste produced by Hawaii public schools.
Miyamoto testified last week at a public hearing on the resolution before the Senate Education Committee, chaired by his project mentor, Sen. Jill Tokuda. Tokuda gave Miyamoto pointers on how to write the resolution and helped him refine the language in it, he said.
He said it is estimated that Hawaii schools produce about 240 pounds of waste per student each year. Multiplied by the number of students, that’s almost 41 million pounds of waste per year for the school system.
The resolution cites the fact that the Waimanalo Gulch landfill is expected to reach its maximum capacity for municipal solid waste by the summer of 2012. It also talks about the importance of teaching people environmental awareness while they are young.
“Whereas, creating awareness of landfill issues begins with educating individuals from a young age about long-term habits that can benefit the environment, establishing habits such as recycling or reusing materials; and whereas, reducing solid municipal waste can be achieved through the education of students and the implementation of waste-reduction practices in the public school…”
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To help the education department begin investigating its environmental impact, Miyamoto is reviewing steps recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency for logging waste production.
But the resolution is only one part of Miyamoto’s . Senior projects are required of students who want to earn the Board of Education recognition diploma and consist of a project, portfolio, research paper and presentation to a panel.
Miyamoto’s main project has been developing a compost program as an alternative to trashing the food waste produced by his high school cafeteria.
“We didn’t used to do anything with our pre-consumed food waste,” he said, referring to the food trash that never touches students’ plates or trays. “I don’t have a specific number of pounds for the amount that was being thrown out, but I do know the biggest amount of waste is at the end of the week when the cafeteria workers have to throw out things that won’t keep over the weekend.”
Tokuda supplied a compost bin, and various community members and friends have donated vermiculture, or worms, to the cause.1 The school’s agriculture class will get first dibs on the resulting compost for its gardens, Miyamoto said. Any compost not used for the agriculture class might be available for teachers to take home to their gardens, he added.
Although composting is a viable option for the school’s pre-consumed food, Miyamoto doesn’t know yet how to get students to throw away less. He hopes the department takes the initiative on finding solutions after he graduates.
“It’s really hard to get other students on board, but there’s a responsibility for all of us to take care of the planet,” he said.
The resolution was passed on March 28, with amendments that acknowledge efforts the Department of Education is toward waste study and reduction.
