Zero Waste initiative

Sam and his Merry Men (the Maintenance Crew) put out trash cans yesterday. Big deal, right? Actually… it is!!!

For the first time in Greystone history, we are going to be a “Zero Waste” camp. Frankly, I never would have thought it possible. You see, we generate A LOT OF TRASH at camp. Last summer we sent a full load to the land fill every day of the summer, but we also did an in-depth study of what the trash was like. Gross huh? We weighed every bag, we analyzed what each bag of trash contained, we consulted with engineers, and finally came up with a plan.

Zero Waste means sending almost nothing to the land fill. We will still send a trash truck, but only one a week rather than 7 a week.

The experts tell us that it is possible for us to be a “Zero Waste” facility if we change our way of doing things… we now separate our trash with multiple cans. One can holds recycle stuff, one holds composte stuff, one holds organic stuff, and one holds trash (this is the smallest can). Everything is color coded and has signs. It will take some time to iron out the details, but everyone is excited about the goal.

We will run a very big composting operation at the barn… mixing compostable material from camp with horse manure and composting with a system that allows us to completely break down a pile in 30 days. By running three piles, we will handle the entire summer (we will also generate a lot of really great compost for our plants and pastures.

We will send all the food waste to a local farm (who use it for pig feed) and we will send our recycleables to a local recycler who sorts and sells the paper, plastic, and aluminum. The batteries will be sent to a recycle center for batteries.

That leaves the trash… we will take a load to the dump as needed. It will not be very much.

So Greystone is doing it’s part to be a good steward of the earth that God has entrusted to us. I think you will be impressed at the change!