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Lunchroom Composting and Recycling in Our Schools

Celebrating our positive impact from lunchroom composting and recycling in our schools in the 25-26 school year! Together, we composted over 280,153 lbs (140 tons) of waste and 375,185 trays with 5,898 students participating at 17 schools. We avoided 100 metric tons of carbon emissions by composting instead of landfilling our waste, that's equal to 1,654 tree seedlings growing for 10 years!

All D65 Schools Participating in 26-27 School Year: Chute, Dawes, Dewey, Foster, Haven, JEH Early Childhood, King Arts, Lincoln, Lincolnwood, Nichols, Oakton, Orrington, Park, Walker, Washington, and Willard

Thank you to our lunchroom supervisors, custodians, nutrition services, teachers, school leaders, staff and our D65 climate action teams, who collectively make this a daily experience for our D65 students. Together, we’re doing our part to create a healthy planet!

Meet Imani affectionately known as "Miss Compost"

English

Spanish

In the 25-26 School Year, 24-25SY and 22-23SY, we achieved our goal for all our D65 schools to participate in lunchroom composting and recycling.

Lunchroom Composting and Recycling in ALL D65 Schools
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Why are we composting and recycling? We're doing our part to create a healthy planet!

  • Composting will transform our food waste like orange peels into healthy soil & nutrients to grow our next delicious crop of fruits and vegetables
  • Recycling materials like milk cartons will turn them into new paper or cardboard
  • All of this will help us reduce waste going to landfill which reduces the carbon emissions of our school creating a healthier planet

2025-26 School Year Positive Impact

The image displays information about a lunchroom composting and recycling program at D65 schools, including the number of students, composted waste, and trays composted over the 25-26 school year.
Two identical infographics, each featuring a green recycling bin overflowing with compostable waste next to a panda eating bamboo, are presented side-by-side against a white background with a blue polka-dot pattern at the top.
Two identical infographics, one in English and one in Spanish, show a green recycling bin overflowing with trash next to a tree, illustrating that composting and recycling in D65 lunchrooms during the 25-26 school year avoids 100 metric tons of carbon emissions, equivalent to 1654 tree seedlings growing for 10 years.
Two identical panels, one in English and one in Spanish, show a stack of composted trays equaling the height of four Sears Towers in the background.