Schools & Early Childhood Centres

The Zero Waste Zero Carbon in Schools Program

Sustainable North Trust developed this program in conjunction with qualified curriculum developers and Auckland Council’s Sustainable Schools Team. It has been running for 6 years in some North Shore intermediates.
The Program encourages students to divert food school food scraps to on-site composting for gardening, soil building, food resilience and climate action
City to Farm collects food scraps that cannot be composted at school, and directs them to a local farm to be used as a resource.
The Zero Waste Zero Carbon in Schools programme is funded by Foundation North and assisted by Auckland Council.

Schools are provided with bokashi composting equipment and instructions on how to layer up the system with their food scraps.

Bokashi inoculant ferments the food scraps, pickling them to minimise odours and maximise rapid breakdown into topsoil.

The compost is collected from the school and transported to a local farm.

The bokashi composted food scraps are then used to build healthy soil on farms that are growing crops and comitted to improving the soil quality.

What That Looks Like

What do schools and ECE’s need to do?

Bokashi composting requires a bit of layering. The ingredients and instructions on how to layer correctly are both provided by City to Farm. The bins and buckets come with woody mulch in the bottom which keeps the food scraps out of the liquid generated when the food scraps break down and is a necessary part of the bokashi process.

When the bins or buckets are full, the lids are strapped down.

The bins and buckets are collected weekly or fortnightly by City to Farm.