New trash cans, compostable cutlery, and reusable water bottles have been added to the campus. Senior Ellington Davis and Director of Nutrition M’Lisa Kelley introduced these items recently.

Davis said the new trash cans were put on campus because he saw a big problem at PHS with sorting out waste.

“There is a complete disproportionate amount of trash bins compared to recycling bins and green bins,” Davis said.

School janitor Marcos Molina said that sometimes there may be confusion on where to put certain items because the students forget to read the label on the item that tells them where to put it.

“About 60 percent of the trash is mixed between different bins, but I do see improvement,” Molina said.

Davis said he talked to Peter Palmer, Piedmont’s director of facilities, on how to get the new trash cans on campus.

“Palmer works with all of the elementary schools and high schools, so the new trash cans actually came from Beach Elementary,” Davis said.

In addition, Davis said he also worked with the organization Piedmont Evergreen to get supplies like the signs on the trash cans and trash clamps.

“If the kids see the different colored trash cans and signs, they are more likely to put [the trash] in the right places,” Molina said. “One piece of trash in the right place makes [my job] easier.”

Davis said that in Green Club’s weekly Monday meetings at lunch in room 26, they train students to be supervisors. These supervisors stand by the trash cans during lunch or brunch and help people put trash in the right bins and use trash clamps to sort mixed trash. Students can get up to around 115 minutes of community service a week if they participate in supervising.

“Having people out there is more of an awareness thing,” Davis said. “If students see people that actually care, they might start caring too.”

Sophomore Izzy Rosselli said that she is passionate about the environment and that her family tries to reduce their plastic use.

“I’ve already used the new trash cans and I’ve seen other people use them as well,” Rosselli said. “So I know it is definitely worth it to put the new trash cans in.”

Another eco-friendly addition is the compostable cutlery and reusable water bottles in the cafeteria. Kelley said that the school was in the middle of switching their biggest vendor when they got these new additions.

“It was easy to take this new vendor and source new materials and negotiate prices, so that we could eliminate about 95 percent of the plastic we use,” Kelley said.

Kelley said that the new compostable forks, nifes, and spoons are all made from potato products.

“I think the compostable cutlery is a really good idea because there are a lot of students using the cutlery provided by food service,” sophomore Charlotte Levy said.

Levy said that putting a sign would be helpful to promote that the new cutlery is compostable because it is very easy to miss the small letters on the cutlery that say “compostable”.

“I bring my own reusable cutlery to school, but I didn’t know about the compostable cutlery until now,” Rosselli said.

In addition, Kelley said that the new reusable water bottles are aluminum and can go in the dishwasher.

“I’ve seen students use the refillable water stations more and I think it is huge that students are making more of an effort to sort trash in the right places,” Kelley said.

Kelley said that food service has always tried to be eco friendly by having vegan and vegetarian options like plant based meat. However, Kelley said that the janitors work very hard and the more we can encourage students to use the resources provided, the better.

“Put that hand in the right bin,” Kelley said.

Davis said his next goals are to bring in green bins for paper towels in the bathrooms, bring the three bin system to Witter for football season, and recycling bins for the classrooms.

“Those are some things we are going to be pushing forward with, so keep an eye out for that,” Davis said.