For more than two years, the Edmonds School District has been out of compliance with Washington State law regarding composting.
A 2022 state mandate requiring large institutions to divert organic waste from landfills has largely gone unheeded across the attention of the district – and students were the ones to let them know change needed to happen.
House Bill 1799, signed into law by former Governor Jay Inslee on March 25, 2022 is Washington’s foundational organic waste law. Importantly, the Bill introduced new requirements for how businesses and institutions like schools had to handle waste such as yard clippings, food, and other organic materials. Its goals, as stated in the extension of the Bill, House Bill 230, are ambitious but possible: divert 75% of organic material away from landfills by 2030, and recover 20% of disposed edible food for human consumption by 2025, both measured against 2015 levels.
The most important part of HB 1799 that students discovered the school district was violating were requirements based on how much organic waste specific institutional buildings can generate in a week. Entities producing at least eight cubic yards weekly were required to have organic waste collection services in place by January 1, 2024. As of 2026, that threshold dropped to four cubic yards of organic waste per week on January 1, 2025. By 2027, local governments must offer composting collection to residents and qualifying businesses by April 2030; separated organic waste collection will become mandatory for all curbside customers.
Most school cafeterias alone, responsible for serving hundreds of students daily, easily clear the eight yard requirement. Yet, composting had remained essentially nonexistent until the local Youth Environmental Council, a student-focused committee which platforms Eco-leaders from across the school district, stepped in to stimulate compliance with the law.
After exchanging emails notifying the District of the issue, in March, members of the Youth Environmental Council were able to secure a meeting with Assistant Superintendent Greg Schwab to discuss the topic at length. Not only is implementing composting into district schools expensive, it requires careful planning, such as which companies would handle the organic waste, who would oversee correct sorting, among many other complications.
Following these talks, the district agreed to move forward with implementing a composting system into schools across the district – MTHS volunteered to be the pilot school – set to launch soon this spring.
The plan calls for composting to begin at school kitchens first, then expand into multi-section trashcans where students can sort their composting, recycling, and solid waste efficiently. The program also hires dedicated staff members to monitor what goes into each section – a direct response to concerns raised by council members about harm from improper sorting. Though these new positions and materials are costly, especially if implemented in all schools in the district, it will be a net positive since more compost means less solid waste and a better outcome for the environment.
However, the bins are only half the solution. For the MTHS pilot program to succeed, students need to actually know how to use them, and that’s where the student body itself comes in. Rather than relying solely based on hired monitors or administrative announcements, the program plans to incorporate students to lead on peer education, treating composting as a good habit to develop rather than a rigid school rule that must be followed. While the district plans to develop its own educational materials to inform students on proper waste-sorting methods, many, like the students in MTHS Eco Club, also plan to visit advisories and develop signage on their own to promote proper usage of the bins in the future.
For YEC members, the end goal is to make composting feel normal for students – something woven into daily routines rather than an afterthought. They point to schools in Seattle as models of what is possible when composting is properly resourced and taught. Eco clubs and other philanthropy-based organizations across the district such as certain Key Clubs have expressed readiness to help transform cafeterias and common areas into spaces that handle organic waste responsibly.
For students who want to get involved before the pilot program fully launches, the Youth Environmental Summit, hosted by the Youth Environmental Council, on Friday, May 29 offers a solid first step.
Hosted at the Edmonds Waterfront Center for free from 1 to 5 p.m., the Summit brings together people from across the area who care about environmental issues.
While guest speakers, workshops, and networking are some of the main focuses of the event, it is also a good way for outsiders to get involved locally to support student voices that makes initiatives like composting in the district harder for administrators to ignore.
For now, all eyes are on Mountlake Terrace.
Whether the pilot program becomes a model for the rest of the district – or quietly stalls like so many environmental initiatives before it – it will heavily depend on whether students stay loud enough to hold decision-makers accountable.
