PORT ANGELES – Organizers of Saturday’s sustainable living fair at Peninsula College practiced what they preached, keeping track of the event’s ecological footprint.
Clean-up volunteers gathered 9.6 ounces of paper products, which were recycled.
The four-pounds of food scraps left on plates after lunch were donated to a local pig farm.
Left-over meals were given to the city’s Serenity House shelter.
Plates, silverware and cloth napkins were provided by the Bushwacker restaurant of Port Angeles, so no flatware was tossed.
Instead, it had to be washed.
Only an ounce of actual trash was generated, according to fifth grade students at Franklin Elementary School in Port Angeles.
The students measured the waste generated at the fair after doing the same thing at their school in February.
For a week that month, the students of Linda Plenert’s class weighed the amount of recyclable materials, trash and food scraps from their school-provided lunch and snack.
They also weighed the amount of food left on plates in the school’s cafeteria.
Between 15 and 18 pounds of food scraps were collected in the cafeteria on three different days, the students found.
Fifth-grader Jazzy Andrus said she learned about moderation from the exercise.
It would be better “if more people ate all the food they take, and not take more, like just grab,” Jazzy said.
Her classmate, Brittany Miranda, said she was surprised that the milk and juice cartons accounted for the most waste.
“There was a lot of waste from our school, and we’re imagining the whole world has a lot of waste,” Brittany said.
