Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful to expand recycling education in schools

In 2018, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful introduced the Food Waste Warriors Initiative to a few Gwinnett County Schools through a Keep America Beautiful-Lowe’s Community Improvement Grant. By 2020, GC&B partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to grow the program as part of the nonprofit’s Green & Healthy Schools program.

Now, the WWF has been awarded an Environmental Protection Agency Recycling Education and Outreach Grant for $1,164,792. A portion of the proceeds will help expand the food waste reduction project at participating Gwinnett schools.

“At participating Gwinnett County schools, students take food waste audits, track the data, create share tables in the cafeteria to minimize waste, collect food scraps and deliver them to the compost connectors composting system,” said GC&B Executive Director Schelly Marlatt in a statement. “Once ready, the mineral-rich compost created from what would typically wind up in a local landfill is used to fertilize the schools’ Plant It Forward community gardens that grow produce and feed pollinators. The funds from this grant will help us expand the program further at participating schools and bring more schools into the food waste reduction fold.”