Windward Zero Waste School Hui

Windward Zero Waste School Hui Windward Zero Waste Schools is a partnership of Oahu schools working in pursuit of waste reduction, soil restoration, & applied environmental education

WZWSH currently operates in Kailua servicing five schools – Ka’ohao Public Charter, Ka’elepulu Elementary, Kainalu Elementary, Enchanted Lake Elementary, and Kailua Intermediate Schools, reaching 2,036 students daily. The philosophy of Zero Waste regards all discarded materials – waste – as valuable resource that can be used beneficially. The practice of Zero Waste at participating schools is mani

fested through a fully-integrated, comprehensive Resource Recovery operation – collecting and sorting all organic materials discarded on each campus and processing these materials to create rich soil. Since the program started in 2014, a total of 229.9 tons of food waste has been diverted from the waste stream and processed on site using safe, natural, long-accepted thermal composting and vermicomposting technologies carried out daily by a team of professional Resource Recovery Specialists with assistance from DOE students participating in environmental education activities. All paper, cardboard, and green waste is also composted on site, reducing dumpster volume up to 90%. Food waste diversion alone in 2021 totaled 57.8 tons. Finished soil amendments are used to restore depleted schoolyards and nourish magnificent school gardens and highly productive campus mini-farms. Surplus recovered product is sold to the public, raising proceeds to fund
school gardens and Ag education, and delighting the Windward community’s food producers and gardeners. (Sales average $50,000 annually.) Students at all grade levels assist with operations, separating food waste at breakfast and lunch, helping to harvest compost and vermicast, prepare worm bin bedding, screen, package, and promote our premium specialty products for sale in their community. Academic units for all grade levels are offered to explore the science of composting and nutrient recycling.

07/06/2023

Vermicast Sale at Kokua Market on Saturday, July 8th, 3-7pm. Please tell your gardener friends!

06/16/2023

We are pleased to announce our Summer open-to-the-public Compost Sale is being held once again at Enchanted Lake Elementary School in Kailua. Saturday, June ...

06/12/2023

Aloha Compost Club members! We will have a COMPOST CLUB HARVEST this Saturday, June 17, 2023, in Kaʻohao School, Lanikai, at 10:30-11:30am. Click Read on, a ...

Our latest article in the Civil Beat -
04/11/2023

Our latest article in the Civil Beat -

Proceeds from compost sales to the public are kept by the partner schools.

Resource Recovery ROCKS this ROCK!Food waste diversion is only one of the many advantages of the Zero Waste School movem...
04/08/2023

Resource Recovery ROCKS this ROCK!

Food waste diversion is only one of the many advantages of the Zero Waste School movement. The five (now, sadly, four) schools serviced by our Resource Recovery Specialists boast beautiful compost arrays that yield more than 50 cubic yards of premium compost every year to transform depleted schoolyards into healthy, balanced ecosystems and grow magnificent school gardens. Sales of surplus compost raise tens of thousands of dollars for our schools. Student environmental education becomes a reality through daily practice.

To learn more about our vision for the future, please take a minute to check out the attached poster, entitled How does COMPOSTING impact CLIMATE CHANGE? We are only now beginning to realize the power of our program, and what expansion could mean for Oahu.

As you may have heard, the DOE has shut down our Resource Recovery operations at our flagship school, Kainalu Elementary. This is a devastating blow, but we are determined to stay strong and carry on.

If you believe in what we do, please support us – we need your help now more than ever. We deeply appreciate your donations to our GoFundMe campaign. The link is in our bio!

Mahalo nui loa,

Mindy and staff of the
Windward Zero Waste School Hui. .a.gypsy .patter808

State suspends popular school composting program following neighbor’s complaint -
04/08/2023

State suspends popular school composting program following neighbor’s complaint -

The Windward Zero Waste School Hui has been helping kids at Kainalu Elementary School manage their food waste for 6 years. But it says a neighbor complaint forced the Department of Education to abruptly pull the plug, leaving them in limbo.

State suspends popular school composting program following neighbor’s complaint - HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Organizers ...
04/08/2023

State suspends popular school composting program following neighbor’s complaint - HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Organizers of a community composting program at a Kailua school are trying to salvage operations after it was abruptly shut down by the Department of Education.

The Windward Zero Waste School Hui has been helping kids at Kainalu Elementary School manage their food waste for six years. But it says a neighbor complaint forced the DOE to abruptly pull the plug, leaving them in limbo.

Co-founder Mindy Jaffe says the compost piles at Kainalu are still valuable, but the DOE has barred her group from doing any further work.

A DOE spokesperson tells HNN it suspended the composting program until it can resolve concerns about large piles of mulch causing dust and debris to travel onto nearby homes. Jaffe says those claims are unfounded.

“Most people have heard scary things about composting, but we have a very, very tight protocol. We do very safe, natural protocol techniques,” she said. “I’ve been doing this for 18 years on school grounds, never had a complaint never had a problem. Most of our neighbors are very, very supportive.”

Kainalu sixth grade student Joey Grzebik says he’s sad to lose the program.

“We’re trying our hardest to really teach kids how to learn and grow as a community in this school, and our compost is doing a lot for the world,” he said. Jaffe says the Hui is ready to move operations from Kainalu and start programs in other interested schools, but those plans are on hold until the DOE lifts the suspension.

The Hui has a GoFundMe page for those interested in helping its mission of sustainable waste management, click https://gofund.me/c47a8ca6!

04/04/2023

Attention Compost Club Members and Zero Waste Ohana. Composting operations at Kainalu Elementary School have been shut down by the DOE indefinitely due to a ...

The Final Panels to the Ka’elepulu Worm Hale are Complete and We’re Installed over Spring Break! ...
03/20/2023

The Final Panels to the Ka’elepulu Worm Hale are Complete and We’re Installed over Spring Break! .a.gypsy .patter808

We made it onto the Shaka 🤙🏻 Scene End Credits of the KHON Six O’clock News. .a.gyps...
02/12/2023

We made it onto the Shaka 🤙🏻 Scene End Credits of the KHON Six O’clock News. .a.gypsy .patter808

A great and successful compost sale today and we even got some news coverage! We still have compost left so please cont...
02/12/2023

A great and successful compost sale today and we even got some news coverage! We still have compost left so please contact us if you missed us at the sale!

02/06/2023

Our usual January 28th Compost Sale was hit hard by heavy rains keeping many of our favorite gardeners and growers at home, so we have re-scheduled. Februar ...

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About Our Hui

Windward Zero Waste Schools Hui, operating under Oahu Resource Conservation & Development Council (ORCD), is a partnership of Windward Oahu schools working cooperatively in the pursuit of waste reduction, soil restoration, and applied environmental education. All members participate annually in the U.S. EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge and adhere to strict, safe, standardized operational procedures (known as our Ka’ohao Protocol). Ka’ohao Public Charter School, formerly Lanikai Elementary, was our our first waste reduction school site, with waste reduction policies and composting and vermicompost procedures initiated in January 2014. Ka’elepulu Elementary followed in August 2016, and Kainalu Elementary in January 2017. Ka’ohao was named #1 in the nation in the EPA Food Recovery Challenge for 2014-15. Data collected from the 2017 calendar year show that food waste recovery of the three Windward Zero Waste School Hui campuses topped out at 63,490 pounds, or 31.75 tons.

Windward Zero Waste Hui schools collect cafeteria food waste and processes on-site to create rich organic soil amendments available to the public. The “wet” food waste is diverted from Oahu’s solid waste stream; students participate and are exposed to the importance of waste reduction & management of commodities, as well as the biosystems involved in the various processes of controlled decomposition of food matter; the soil amendments produced boast the highest quality on island, & excess (beyond that used on-site and in school gardens) can be sold to the public for residential use or agricultural applications.

Schools become cleaner and greener. Dumpster waste is cut by 85%. Dusty campuses are restored to vitality. Steady sales create a reliable revenue stream. Students participate daily in food waste collection and take responsibility at their schools to help with operations such as compost harvesting and screening. By altering campus waste management, conservation and environmental values are practiced and reinforced. Teachers are presented with unlimited opportunity to introduce lessons in science, ecology, decomposition, plant growth, etc.