Barrington High School student Emma Pautz believes more must be done.

Emma and her friend, Bella Quiroa, a student at the MET School, have created a campaign to encourage schools across Rhode Island to adhere to legislation requiring that they compost food waste. 

Emma and Bella have discovered that many schools are not composting their food waste. In an email to the Barrington Times, Emma wrote that the legislation was signed into law in 2021. The bill called for all qualifying schools in Rhode Island to start lunchroom composting and food donation as a part of their waste diversion systems as of Sept. 2021.

“Unfortunately, two years after the introduction of this mandate, there has been little success,” Emma wrote. “According to data collected through our analytical survey for schools, we’ve found that out of the 85 schools represented, less than a third are currently composting in their lunchrooms.”

In an interview with the Times, Emma said she and Bella sent out surveys to nearly 300 schools statewide. 

“What we’ve been finding is that schools aren’t following it. Our personal experience is that because it’s not enforced and it’s not funded it’s not a top priority for administrators,” she said. 

Emma said her research shows that some Barrington Public Schools could be doing a better job also.

“Barrington High School does have a program and so does Barrington Middle School but it’s not collecting as much as it should be,” she said.

Emma wrote that the state landfill is projected to reach its capacity by 2043, and that food waste is contributing about 24 percent of the total waste. 

“Being actively involved in the environmental work of our local communities, we have seen these setbacks first-hand and would like to see better enforcement of this mandate overall,” she wrote. 

That is why at the beginning of this school year, Emma and Bella banded together to create the Youth Composting Campaign Initiative, or Y.C.C.I. 

“Through this initiative, we are working directly with school communities, uplifting student voices, and collaborating with environmental organizations such as the Rhode Island School Recycling Project, and the Advocacy Project…” Emma wrote.

Their intent is to reach superintendents and government agencies, such as the Rhode Island Department of Education and the Department of Environmental Management, and ensure that schools are composting food waste. They have started an online petition which has nearly 1,000 signatures.

Emma said she and Bella plan to present the petition to officials at RIDE and DEM and district administrators. 

“We’re going to write a report on that, and we’re also going to write a school report, grading all the schools on how they’re doing with composting,” she said. 

Emma expects the report will be ready by the end of April.