Waste Audit

Project Leader(s): Shreya Thota

School(s) Involved: The International School Bangalore (TISB)

City: Bangalore

The Waste Audit project aims to organize and strategize the waste created by each department in the school for two main reasons. Firstly, this information helps us organize and redistribute waste from one department to another department that might still have some use for it, which reduces the amount of waste we send to a landfill. Secondly, it also allows us to compare our data with other eco-schools around the world, see where we stand, and how and where we can improve.

The project started by first sitting down and separating each part of the school into relevant categories, such as the lab sciences and elementary classrooms. Then we brainstormed all the most likely waste each department may produce; for example, the lab sciences may have broken glass that could be sent to a factory, melted, and reused. After this, we set up meetings with and talked to the heads of each departmental section, and asked them a few questions, mainly what they normally throw away and what they would like to have more of.

Finally, we identified items that could be redistributed, and began building a plan for redistributing for the next term. Then, school shut down, and everyone was sent home. We weren’t able to have consistent club meetings, and no-one was in school, so essentially no waste was being produced. Because of this, we decided that we could focus most of our attention on improving the data and organization of the information that we do have. So that we are ready to resume waste auditing and redistribution once campus reopens!