January 2026

Plastic Trash Audit

I helped with a lunch trash audit at a private school in Springfield organized by the Show-me less plastic project. The teacher was a fellow Missouri Master Naturalist and had done a great job preparing for the event – having the elementary students make posters for the initial sorting: food waste, non-plastic trash, reuse, and plastic trash. After their lunch the students put their trash in the correct bin. We (the adults) moved to a classroom with tarps over tables and on the floor which would be used for sorting by students over 3 class periods. The third and fourth graders divided into 4 groups and used the tarp covered table for the non-plastic  and plastic trash respectively while the second graders used the floor tarp to sort reuse/recycle. The sorting of the plastic trash was the most thorough – with a worksheet for each group to categorize pieces of trash as they counted. Some of it was quite small!  The next action the school is considering is to do a plastic free lunch!

Posted on 01/31/2026 by Gwen Morrison