By Jirapa Wongwanich, LOSN Schools & Waste Reduction Action Teams
What began as a simple trash bin observation has grown into a collaborative sustainability effort connecting students, teachers, families, staff and community organizations across multiple schools in the Lake Oswego School District.
In March 2025, while volunteering at Palisades World Language School, I noticed how much food waste was ending up in trash bins each day. Like many families in our community, I had started separating food waste at home after learning about the city’s curbside composting program. The question naturally emerged: could students separate their lunch food scraps too?
That same evening, I attended a sustainability gathering co-hosted by Lake Oswego Sustainability Network and Lake Oswego School District, where a county representative shared how Clackamas County supports schools in managing their waste. Inspired by the presentation, I reached out to the Palisades Green Team leaders to explore whether lunch waste separation might be possible at our school.
We decided to begin with a simple Earth Day activity involving a limited number of classes. We created a short presentation to teach students about food waste, composting and a simple sorting process designed to minimize confusion and contamination:
- Only food goes into the compost bin,
- Leftover milk goes into the liquid bin,
- Unopened or uneaten food goes into the food-share bin.
Clackamas County provided bins and helped conduct a food waste audit, while teachers and volunteers guided students through the process. The kitchen staff also provided recommendations and support with cleanup and logistics. The response from students, teachers and staff was immediate and encouraging.
Soon after, I joined the Lake Oswego Sustainability Network Schools Action Team, where I met people who shared the same passion for sustainability and environmental education. That sense of community empowered and inspired us to do more for younger generations. LOSN created space for ideas, partnerships, and encouragement, showing how community collaboration can turn small ideas into meaningful change.
Earlier this year, the Lake Oswego High School Green Team invited the LOSN Schools Action Team to discuss lunch composting efforts at the high school campus. Seeing students genuinely passionate about food waste reduction and environmental responsibility energized both groups and inspired a broader vision: expanding lunch waste separation programs throughout the district.
As planning continued, support grew across the district, including collaboration with LOSD Nutrition Services, Facility Operations and Communications teams. Elementary schools began exploring how programs could work within their own campuses and routines.
Three schools, River Grove Elementary School, Lake Grove Elementary School and Palisades World Language School successfully expanded or launched school-wide lunch waste separation programs with support from Lake Oswego Sustainability Network.
Each school approached the work differently based on its own strengths and logistical challenges. Schools without cafeterias, such as Palisades and Lake Grove, needed creative solutions for setting up sorting stations in hallways and transporting collected waste outdoors. River Grove, the school with a cafeteria, had to manage a larger student population and faced higher risks of contamination. Lake Grove already had passionate teachers leading advanced food waste separation efforts with younger grades. River Grove benefited from an enthusiastic 5th grade leadership team and a supportive lead teacher, while Palisades relied on strong collaboration among teachers, staff and parent volunteers.
LOSN played a key role in connecting schools, volunteers, students and community partners by facilitating communication, sharing knowledge and helping turn ideas into action. Clackamas County continued supporting the schools by providing rolling bins, supplies and food waste audits. Teachers organized student helpers, school cooks and building engineers helped manage daily setup and supported logistics, and parent volunteers assisted with training and supervision. Members of the Lake Oswego High School Green Team visited elementary schools to guide younger students through the sorting process, creating meaningful peer-to-peer learning experiences. Many 5th grade students eagerly stepped into leadership roles, helping younger students sort waste correctly and building excitement around sustainability.
Across all three schools, one key factor stood out: collaboration. The success of these programs was not the result of one person or one group, but of an entire community working together: students, teachers, custodians, nutrition staff, administrators, volunteers, county partners and LOSN𐆑all contributing in different ways.
This growing effort is a reminder that meaningful change often begins with small, local actions and that students are ready and eager to make a positive impact on the environment. When schools, families and communities come together around a shared purpose, even a simple lunch routine can become an opportunity to teach leadership, environmental stewardship and collective responsibility for the future.
We hope this program will continue to grow, become institutionalized within the district and expand to more schools in the coming years. With continued collaboration among students, staff, families, community partners and district leadership, this effort has the potential to become a lasting part of school culture and sustainability education across the district.