Composting/Gardening
ECO-SILOS:
A few years ago, a group of 8 th Grade students developed a community focus (CoFo) project around composting. The group contacted a local authority on ecologically sensitive solutions to urban problems, Alois Kennerknecht, who showed them his eco-silo concept for composting. Eco-silos, lightbulb-shaped, underground composting pits, provided an easy, manageable and relatively inexpensive way for indivduals and communities to recycle and compost organic waste materials generated by food preparation and consumption.
The 8th Grade CoFo group developed a project with Kennerknecht to place eco-silos in low-income, urban schools in order to support organic solutions to trash disposal problems and support community gardens. The project was so successful that, following the group’s presentation to faculty and staff, teachers supervising the 7 th Grade Roosevelt Eco Club decided to install a set of eco-silos here on campus to support our on campus gardening.
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Unfortunately, despite the fact that everyone liked the eco-silo idea, over time the project was abandoned. Like many well-intentioned projects, the Roosevelt eco-silo project lacked clear leadership responsibility and a system to ensure its continuance despite leadership changes.
Under our “Think Green Act Green” umbrella this year we hope that will change as we re-introduce eco-silos on campus. Working with students, staff and administrators, we plan to establish a system of implementation that will last long after our present Green Team members graduate and move on the colleges and universities around the world.
Our plan is to open four eco-silos on campus, two for Elementary School and another two for Middle and High School. Organic material from the kiosks and lunch boxes will be collected in bins and then transferred to our eco-silos to produce compost. The compost produced will be used to enrich the dirt we use in our Organic Garden. Our goal is that this system be sustainable, thereby ensuring the longterm success of our Organic Garden!
THE GARDEN
The gardening club is a year-round organization which focuses mainly in promoting gardening by carrying out after school activities. Among these activities include planting a array of different plants in our garden; located next to the climbing wall area. Among our goals is to help the environment through our extensive efforts in expanding our organic garden. Additionally, we contribute to the Roosevelt community by donating our crops to the school’s kiosk.
- Jose Manuel Ceppi Senior at FDR
One Response
Having eco-silos on campus is an awesome idea. This will give the students more opportunity in learning how to minimize build up of garbage. Maybe they’ll also be interested in composting using Red Wiggler worms?
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