Mesa Union students learn to turn garbage to greens

WASTE NOT- Mesa Union students fill garden plot with compost as part of a project on incorporating recycled material in gardens.

About 70 sixth-graders from Mesa Union School in Somis recently received an upclose lesson on how green waste is recycled in Ventura County. The students visited the Agromin green waste recycling facility in Oxnard as part of the school's yearlong Garbage to Gardens project.

The students watched as green waste, such as leaves, tree limbs, wood and grass clippings, was dropped off at the site. Agromin employees then picked out paper, plastics, metals and other debris.

"The kids were surprised about how much trash was thrown away with the green waste," said Michele Waggoner, a teacher at Mesa Union School.

After it had been cleaned of unwanted materials, the waste was chopped, laid out into large rows and heated to 140 degrees to kill weeds and disease-causing organisms.

When regularly turned and watered, the green waste eventually turns into compost, which is made into various soul products.

Agromin provided bags of finished compost to the students for their school gardens.

"Students try to recycle everything now," said Waggoner. "Students have been collecting dead leaves around campus, and the custodians are saving grass clippings. Starbucks is donating used coffee grounds for our composting pile."

The Garbage to Gardens project is funded by a grant from Lowe's Toolbox for Education.