Composting for Schools and Communities

Composting allows schools and communities to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Through composting the amount of garbage sent to the landfill is reduced, the organic matter is reused rather than dumped, and it is recycled into a useful soil amendment. Composting is a way of harnessing and speeding up the natural process of decomposition. 

 

Composting Curriculum

These curriculum materials were developed for a recent train-the-trainer composting workshop in Puerto Rico and can be used to aid schools and communities who want to start or enhance their composting education.

Readings

Compost fact sheet series

  1. Marketing Composts and Meeting Consumer Needs
  2. Regulation and Certification of Composts
  3. Improving and Maintaining Compost Quality
  4. Testing Composts
  5. Compost Bulking Materials
  6. Compost Pads 
  7. Compost Equipment
  8. Composting Liquids

Decay and Renewal: Developed by the Cornell Environmental Inquiry Program, Decay and Renewal consists of a student edition and teacher's guide designed to enable high school students to carry out authentic research.

Health & Safety Guidance for Composting in the School Setting - 2 pg fact sheet

Vermicompost - A Living Soil Amendment. A 9-minute video (YouTube or download) on how vermicompost is made and used as a waste management technology. Included are research documents and other resources.

Compost Curriculum includes the following (Spanish and English):

  • Waste Management Overview
  • Composting Biology
  • Let's Start Composting
  • Use Your Compost
  • Watching Your Waste poster
  • How Does Composting Work? poster
  • My Compost is Not Working
  • The Food Web Game
  • What Lives in Compost
  • Which Composting System is for Me?
  • Composting - How it All Works