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Conservation commission advances school composting, EcoMaine waste-audit for fifth graders
Summary
At its April meeting, the Old Orchard Beach Conservation Commission discussed expanding school composting incentives for middle-school students, bringing EcoMaine in for a free fifth-grade waste audit, and recruiting volunteers to sustain summer beach-profiling and school programs.
The Old Orchard Beach Conservation Commission spent much of its April meeting on education and waste-reduction efforts, discussing incentive cards for student composting, an EcoMaine grant for compostable serveware and a planned EcoMaine waste-audit for fifth-graders.
Committee member (Speaker 1) said the town’s board sign already reads, "piping plovers are back," and then turned attention to school composting and incentives, noting about 40 eighth-graders are eligible for the program and that "they are $5 each" for the small reward cards. Members discussed a move to digital $20 cards at some vendors and explored alternatives if paper cards are no longer available.
"They gave us a grant for that," Committee member (Speaker 1) said of EcoMaine, referring to funding to buy compostable serveware for the school cafeteria. EcoMaine will also run a no-cost waste-audit exercise for fifth-graders: staff will dump a barrel of lunchroom waste onto a tarp to sort recyclable, compostable and landfill items and show students the results.
Members agreed to recruit volunteers to keep school composting running over the summer and to look for a high-school champion to extend the program upward. Speaker 3 offered to check with local vendors about reprinting paper incentive cards and, if needed, to explore alternatives such as local ice-cream shop vouchers.
Commissioners also reported outreach highlights: students and educators from area schools presented at a regional science symposium on forest-health topics, and the group has released roughly 1,600 biological-control beetles over five years to combat hemlock woolly adelgid; the state entomologist, Colleen Tierling, is expected to visit in late May or June to survey beetle survival.
Why it matters: The commission’s school-focused work ties classroom learning to on-the-ground conservation and waste-reduction, and the EcoMaine partnership provides a low-cost, curriculum-aligned way to demonstrate recycling and composting concepts to students. Members said keeping momentum will require ongoing volunteer time and a community champion.
Next steps: Members will follow up on vendor options for incentive cards, confirm volunteer availability for summer beach-profiling and student presentations, and host EcoMaine’s planned fifth-grade waste audit once the schedule is set.
