The Zero Waste Zero Carbon in Schools programme challenges intermediate and college students to take an active role in mitigating climate change by directing food scraps out of landfill and into the soil instead. It is a hands-on, facilitated programme funded by Foundation North in the north Auckland area providing schools with all the equipment they need to collect food scraps.
Students then work out the best composting option and implement a food scrap diversion programme within the school. Students study the various forms carbon takes in the soil, the carbon cycle in relation to photosynthesis, how plants pump carbon down to the roots to feed soil microorganisms and how biochar/ beneficial fungi transform these into a stable form of carbon, creating a carbon sink. Ways to create carbon sinks on campus are explored.
Photo: Northcross Intermediate students intently studying the living soil with hand lenses
