Hundreds of pounds of food waste every day. Co-Presidents of Eco Club Ashna Shah (12) and Maya Wilson (11) have been on a mission to transform Monarch High School into a Green Star School. With a passion for sustainability and a commitment to the environment, they are promoting eco-friendly school-wide practices.

Alongside Eco Club’s recruiting projects and audits that evaluate Monarch’s impact on the environment through energy, waste, and recycling, their main project is guiding Monarch toward becoming a Green Star School.

“Monarch is one of the few schools in the district that is not Green Star certified, and most of that is led by Eco-Cycle and Eco Club,” Shah said. “It’s mainly about reducing waste in schools and educating students on waste reduction, having the option of compost, and reducing contamination across different ways.”

After a long journey to join the rest of Boulder Valley schools as a Green Star school, Eco Club has finally made this goal a reality. Both Co-Presidents hope to increase the student body’s awareness of environmental issues.

“We’re going to introduce compost into the school, increase recycling, reduce waste, and integrate education about it in every classroom,” Wilson said.

After conducting the waste audit with Eco-Cycle, Shah and Wilson discovered serious issues with Monarch’s current waste process.

“When we did our waste audit from the representative sample of trash, we found that 60% of it was food waste in the cafeteria,” Shah said. “And we’re like, okay, this is 60% that could be diverted elsewhere, right? And it’s probably hundreds of pounds of food waste a week.”

Monarch will see a significant improvement in food waste reduction and school sustainability as a whole, largely thanks to the efforts of Monarch’s hardworking Eco Cub.

“We’re looking to solve these issues so that we’ll be able to have more clear distinctions,” Shah said. “And in doing so, we’ll be able to reduce Monarch’s waste impact.”