Portsmouth School Department

WasteNaut is the sustainability consultant for the Portsmouth School District, where we are working to implement a uniform lunchroom composting and recycling program across the four schools in their district. In the 24-25 school year we…

• Introduced a lunchroom sustainability program within all four schools in the district! 

• Melville and Hathaway Elementary schools consistently achieved a 85% or higher daily diversion rate of their cafeteria waste. 

• Diverted 46,440 pounds or 23.22 tons of food scraps from entering the landfill in the 24-25 school year!

• Educated about 2,050 students in the district about composting and recycling!

• Created a uniform waste sorting system with custom signage for each lunchroom. 

• Switched to compostable lunch trays in the elementary and middle schools; the high school has a dishwasher for reusable trays!

• All kitchens, run and staffed by Chartwells, successfully composting food scraps back-of-house. 

We are so excited to work with Portsmouth Schools again for the 25-26 school year and continue with this momentum!

North Kingstown School Department

Last October, our founder Eva, started working as the NK Sustainability Specialist within the North Kingstown School Department to design and implement a student-led composting and recycling program! The school district was awarded $165,662 through the “Get the Foam Out” grant program to eliminate styrofoam trays and start composting programs in schools. Working together with the NK Child Nutrition Department, last year they:

• Implemented waste diversion programs in 6 schools (Hamilton Elementary School, Fishing Cove Elementary School, Quidnesset Elementary School, Forest Park Elementary School, Stony Lane Elementary School, and Davisville Middle School).

• Educated 1,880 students about composting and recycling topics.

• Achieved over 75% waste diversion rates within all school lunchrooms each day.

• Established a share cart and/or share refrigerators in each school to combat food insecurity and reduce unnecessary food waste.

• Switched to compostable lunch trays in all of the schools; only using compostable & recyclable serviceware in the schools that are actively composting. 

• Created student-led “Compost Crews” to run the daily operations of the program in their lunchrooms. 

Eva will continue in her role as the NK Sustainability Specialist for the 25-26 school year!

WasteNaut Consulting partners with school districts to design and implement waste diversion and reduction programs, provide student education and training, and support long-term sustainability goals. If you know of a school district that is interested in reducing waste and engaging students in hands-on sustainability, we would love to hear from you. 

Send us an email at info@wastenautri.com, we’d love to learn more! 

We are working with Gray Matter Marketing as their sustainability consultant for two of their road races this October. You can join the sustainability efforts by volunteering for our Green Team – we’ll be helping runners and spectators sort their waste into compost, recycling and landfill waste bins at the finish line. Green Team volunteer shifts are listed below! 

Attend one of our volunteer trainings on September 30th or October 6th at 6PM to learn more about the Green Team and the ins and outs of waste sorting!