A few weeks ago you may have noticed a GPEC member directing you where to throw away your trash in the South Room. The waste audit usually happens once a year organized by the Georgetown Prep Environmental Club but this year the club has decided to go a step further. GPEC will soon start conducting waste audits every other week in addition to the one done before.

The waste audit records the pounds of waste thrown away during the three lunch periods during the day. It records the pounds of plastic, pounds of food, number of plates used, and any other things that may have gotten thrown away during those lunch periods. This year the most recent audit reported that students used 530 plates. The audit also told GPEC that the students and faculty threw away 22.7 pounds of miscellaneous items, 20.8 pounds of plastic, and 63.4 pounds of food. The pounds of plastic result almost completely from the plastic cups used to hold drinks. The pounds of food disposed of depend on the lunch the South Room serves that day; if there are bones in it or depending on whether or not the meal is well received with the students changes the amount of waste produced. These numbers align with last year’s audit with only a slight increase in total pounds. This waste audit does not even consider that trash from breakfast, dinner, or the weekends.

GPEC will soon start bi-weekly waste audits every other Thursday. In doing so, GPEC wants to spread awareness within the Prep community on the waste we’re producing. The club hopes that when the audits start to become more routine, students will be more aware of how much they are wasting during lunch and try to tone it down. Next time you enter the South Room, be careful of what you’re wasting.