In 2021 the Clean Technology Centre was commissioned by Dublin local authorities to implement a composting project in Dublin schools. The aims of the pilot project are to:

• Help schools prevent and manage landscape trimmings and garden cuttings on site so they can become zero landscape waste schools as well as help encourage the use of brown bins for food waste. Both will help schools eliminate disposal of biodegradable waste to save money.
• Provide school staff or caretakers with the knowledge and tools necessary to prevent and compost landscape and garden waste on-site.
• Provide teachers with the knowledge and tools necessary to incorporate composting within classroom learning activities that align with existing curricula by curating and vetting resources and learning exercises from the internet and by installing composting systems at schools to serve as a learning tools- both composting systems for schools gardens as well as wormeries for food waste.
• Teach students about the composting process and how compost is vital to the many cycles that sustain our planet including the water, nutrient and carbon cycles.
• Use schools as a vehicle for getting the food waste prevention and on-site composting message home for families to consider and take action on.
• Create and fine tune an effective training and technical support programme for schools in the Dublin area that can be expanded in future years to all schools around the country.

The project team will create a dedicated web space on the Composting Ireland website for the programme, that will host all of the online resources, promotional information, surveys, training videos, instructional fact sheets & posters and classroom learning activities needed to implement the programme.