How much waste does your school produce?

The only way to be find out is to carry out an audit of the waste produced. This means getting your hands dirty, literally as well as metaphorically! You'll need:

• Some protective equipment (disposable gloves, something to protect your clothes)
• Some bags to sort your waste into
• Scales or balances to weigh the waste
• Recording sheets on which to write the results
• A spreadsheet to calculate the totals and averages
• Some bags of waste collected the night before your audit

First, you'll need to lay your hands on some waste to audit - if you have a team of helpers to work with, you'll need one bag per two helpers. Do your waste audit on a Tuesday at the earliest, as then your sample bags of waste will only have been waiting for 24 hours, rather than over the weekend! Ask the Site management staff to tell you how many bags of waste were collected that day in total - this'll enable you to estimate the total daily waste. Hopefully, you've picked a typical day's waste.

Next, you'll need a place where you can spread out bagfuls of waste - put a plastic sheet down if necessary to protect surfaces.

On the day, gather the helpers together and explain what you're going to do, telling them about safety precautions (no running about, wearing protective equipment all the time, not touching exoosed skin, washing hands afterwards, watching out for sharps - blades, glass etc. - or blood).

Auditing the waste

• Spread out the waste and sort it into categories (use a separate plastic bag for each category)
• Weigh the sorted bags
• Write the results on a Recording Sheet
• Transfer the results onto a spreadsheet
• Discuss the results - how much recyclable waste is being thrown away into landfill?

If you want to calculate the total waste produced by the school, the same exercise will need to be done on the kitchen/dining hall waste.

A follow-up audit can be recorded on the second worksheet tab in the Spreadsheet file. This will show whether the situation has improved or not.

Click here to download Recording Sheets (MS Word) and a spreadsheet file (MS Excel)

Click to download

Title	Authored	Size
The Great Waste Quiz	08/04/2011	44k
The Great Waste Quiz - with answers	08/04/2011	45k
Waste Audit recording sheet	08/04/2011	28k
Waste Audit Spreadsheet	08/04/2011	33k