Saint Paul students begin feeding food waste to local pigs
Starting this week, Saint Paul public schools will begin a districtwide effort to reduce the tons of garbage thrown out every year and feed as much as possible of what's left to local pigs.
Benefits of recycling food waste include:
• saving money (recycling food waste will significantly reduce the State Solid Waste Management Tax and the County Environmental Charge that the district is required to pay);
• improving safety (custodians won't have to lift as many heavy garbage bags);
• increasing cleanliness and reducing odors (eliminating wet waste from garbage also eliminates lots of the mess and smell); and
• improving pest control (less garbage means fewer flies and wasps hovering around district dumpsters).
Having piloted this project last year at four schools - Galtier, Hancock, International Academy, and Maxfield - the school district plans to implement it districtwide by the end of this school year. The schools starting the food waste recycling effort this week include Bridge View, Four Seasons, and Highland Park, but other schools will soon be joining the effort between now and December. At upcoming student assemblies, schools will demonstrate how the sorting process will work at breakfast and lunch. Basically, if the pigs can eat it, it goes in the blue bucket; if they can't, it goes in the gray bucket. Barthold Farms, near Anoka, Minn., will then pick up everything in the blue buckets and deliver it to the pigs.
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