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Presentation to Orange County Commissioners <br /> by Trash Terminators 2.0 <br /> • This was Trash Terminators 1.0 <br /> • Rohan Deshpande, Helen Jiang, Joshua Zhou <br /> • Won "Siemen's We Can Change the World" National Challenge <br /> (Pie chart) <br /> • We are the `Trash Terminators 2.0' <br /> • Our team: Vincent Chen, Rohan Deshpande, Elizabeth Farmer, Quentin Sieredzki <br /> and Graeme Zimmermann. <br /> Why Did We Start Composting? <br /> - Chapel Hill landfill closed on July 1 st 2013 <br /> - Trash is transported to a new location 100 + miles away <br /> - Adding cost and creating more pollution <br /> - Using a carbon footprint calculator: <br /> - Every ton of trash which our city will generate and ship to the new <br /> landfill, we will be releasing 57 pounds CO2 and spending $55 <br /> - Since 55% of our cafeteria trash is compostable waste <br /> - By composting in our cafeteria we: <br /> - Reduce greenhouse gases <br /> - Reduce emissions of methane gas which is caused by food in the <br /> landfill <br /> - Reduce the amount of money our county pays to ship the trash to <br /> the landfill <br /> How We Sort in the Cafeteria <br /> • We set up composting bins in our school cafeteria <br /> • Students dump all their compostable food items which include: <br /> — Food waste (fruits, uneaten food including meat and dairy) <br /> — Food trays (we switched from Styrofoam to compostable food trays) <br /> — Napkins <br /> • We contracted with Brooks Contractors who collect our food waste twice a week <br /> — We could not compost on school premises because of health issues <br /> • It could attract animals and generate bad smells <br /> — Commercial composting like Brooks allows meats and dairy to be <br /> composted <br /> • We dump all the liquids into a container which eventually goes in the sink <br /> — Reduces unnecessary weight in the trash <br /> • We recycle: <br /> — Cans, bottles, milk and juice cartons, and aluminum foil <br /> • Our goal is to send only pure trash to the new landfill <br /> — Reducing carbon emissions and cost <br /> — We will have less trash pickup rotations <br /> • This will give our school additional savings <br /> In the Cafeteria <br /> What we did: <br /> • We involved the whole school <br />