Compfra
- 1. BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE COMPOSTING PROJECT AT SCHOOL : Autumn 2009
- 2. First phase in class where students work on the importance and the principles of composting. Communication in the direction of the other students is conceived. A bilingual student translates into English the text written by the others.
- 3. The compost bin did not arrive yet, we have time to prepare posters which will be exposed in the dining hall .
- 4. A student decorates the garbage can which will be used to collect all the rests of meals in the canteen.
- 5. The corridor where everybody puts his tray after the meal . Here it is !
- 6. Michèle and Marie take charge of the dishes with a caustic humour. The central hole welcomes all the waste.
- 7. BEGINNING OF THE COMPOSTING PROJECT AT SCHOOL : Tuesday, January 5th 2010
- 8. Today we are invited to throw what remains of the meals into the green garbage can.
- 9. As people leave the restaurant, two voluntary pupils and an adult remind simple instructions and also check that the sorting is done well.
- 10. Unfortunately bags fill fastly, easily 30 kg a day. You can’t have too many skins of grapefruit because they decompose slowly.
- 11. Yummy... The purpose of the experience is also preventing wasting, not making the biggest heap of compost!
- 12. At about 1 pm, voluntary pupils and adult carry the garbage can towards the composting area. Other people's opinion is not easy to manage for teenagers, that’s the reason why we try to spend a friendly moment.
- 13. Above you can see the compost bin (1 m 3 ). Behind this bin we’ve set up the structuring tub: It contains dead leaves, crushing material, wooden shavings that it is necessary to mix with the food. It allows a good report carbon / nitrogen and avoids smelling. THE AREA OF COMPOSTING
- 14. At the bottom of the tub: You can see some straw hardly decomposed, which is full of bacteria and greedy creatures (thank you Fabien !).
- 15. We add what remains of the meals (simply emptying the plastic bags).
- 16. The waste is carefully spread...
- 17. We add structuring material.
- 18. We’ve done it! By mixing every day just before emptying the waste, the process is activated well and the smells are not unpleasant. On Friday, January 15th, i.e. one and a half week after the beginning of the operation, the temperature was raising up to 40°C at 20 cm deep: the process is on the way !
- 19. FUTURE ACTIONS PLANNED: Receiving the second tub: The first one is soon full of leaves which are not a good structuring material Receiving crushing material from the City hall Communicating in French and English via internet and an information panel which should be seen from the street Organizing in a more stable way the assignments of everybody (it would be better for the project to have with us not only volunteers) Ending and cleaning the composting area. (barriers, protection of the structuring tub) In a few months: Using the matured compost for growing the green spaces of the school and the City of Vallon Pont d’Arc … And naturally sending a sample of mature compost to each member of the Comenius team! ...