This is a presentation created by the Daring Dolphins (FLL team # 4627) to present their project as part of the FLL 2015-16 competition. The project theme was "trash trek" and the team has come up with an innovative solution to enhance the accessibility and reach of composting.

1. Trash Trek – “Wasted Food” to “Plant Fuel”
A FLL Project Presentation by Daring Dolphins
 Aditi Nayak
 Drithi Kanthala
 Naina Mishra
 Sneha Singh

2. Problem research & findings
 We researched extensively to understand the problem of trash using the
following sources: Online articles, books, documentaries and field trips
 We understood the different types of trash and how they are handled:
 We decided to concentrate on Food/Organic Wastage
Trash Trek
Electronic Waste
Plastic Waste
Paper Waste
Metal Waste
Fabric Waste
Food/Organic Waste
Global Solid Waste Composition

3. Some Food/Organic Wastage facts
 Food/Organic waste represents one of the largest component of landfills
 Food and other organic waste in landfills releases methane
 Methane plays a big role in Global Warming - It traps up to 100 times more
heat than Carbon dioxide within a 5 year period
We realized that there are several programs to reduce the
amount of food wastage but not a lot of creative options to
improve the process of recycling food/organic waste.

4. Problem Identification summary
Trash Trek
Electronic Waste
Plastic Waste
Paper Waste
Metal Waste
Fabric Waste
Organic/Food Waste
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle – How can we better Recycle
Organic/Food Waste?

5. Recycling Organic/Food wastage – Existing
solutions
 Individual composting
 City/County based composting
 Third party commercial services

6. Our solution – Community Composting
 We have taken a proven recycling mechanism:
Composting
 We have created an innovative process around
Composting to make it more accessible
 We call it “Community Composting”

7. Community Composting – Key
Implementation Features
 Creation of a small community center for
composting with a small team of dedicated
community volunteers.
 Initial setup based on community donation
 Residents bring food waste to the center and
receive a credit towards small amount of nutritious
dirt back
 Eventually we start supplying to locals to create a
sustainable model

8. Community Composting – Why this is
innovative?
 Sense of Community – becomes a common
cause rather than individual effort
 Economic benefit – nutritious soil for free
 Proximity – Somewhere convenient; but not too
close to houses
 Participants in this program do not require
composting knowledge
 Leads to healthy gardens
 Sense of contribution towards a greener planet

9. Hence…”Wasted Food” to “Plant Fuel”
- By Daring Dolphins

10. Research sources
 Online research:
 USDA website
 Food Rescue
 Wikipedia
 Documentaries and videos on YouTube
 Books

11. Research sources - Continued
 Field trips and discussion with professionals
Wake county land fill
Sonoco Material Recycling
Facility
North Carolina State
University

12. Sharing / Feedback
 Wake county experts
 Sara Davarbakhsh, MSc
Environmental Program Coordinator
Solid Waste Management Division | Environmental Services
 Meghan O'Connor Baldwin
Outreach & Education Manager
Solid Waste Management Division | Environmental Services
 Chelsea Arey
Environmental Program Coordinator
Solid Waste Management Division | Environmental Services
 Rebecca Dunstan
Feed the Bin School Recycling Program Coord.
N.C. Certified Environmental Educator
Wake County Environmental Services
 Rhonda Sherman
NC State University
Biological & Agricultural Engineering
 YouTube
 Twitter
 SlideShare.net
 Respective schools
 Fuller GT/AIG Magnet Elementary
 Mills Park Elementary
 Mills Park Middle