KEEP SWEDEN TIDY - Håll Sverige Rent

Composting
It is a sunny day, and the garden plots are thriving outside of the school Pilgrimsskolan in
Aspudden in the south of Stockholm. Some of the pupils are picking weeds in the plots at
the front yard, and there is a frantic activity in the corner where the compost bins are.
TEXT AND PHOTO KATARINA HELLBERG
the pupils help each other to scrape today’s
food waste down the bins. Macaroni,
sandwiches, pieces of fish and a few
potatoes go into the bin.
“I find the compost disgusting, but exciting
too,” says Masha. “It’s cool, because
I have never seen the inside of compost
before. There are insects in it.”
This semester’s last meeting of the
Eco-Committee has just finished and the
participants have gathered around the
compost bins at the yard. During the past
school year, a representative from each
class and two teachers have held meetings
more or less once a month.
One of the goals within their work with
the Eco-Schools programme has been
to look at the composting and find out
how much food waste there is left from
lunch and afternoon snack. Scales were
acquired and the class representatives of
the Environmental Council taught their
classmates how to weigh.
“what’s really the point with weighing
food waste?” physical education teacher
Susanne Ebers asks.
“To see how much we throw away.”
Masha answers.
“And if we need more compost
bins,”Adam adds.
Consideration of environmental cycles
is important at our school,” says the
school’s administrator and supervisor Annika
Piirimets. The food waste is put in
the compost, where it molders and turns
into soil that is put on the plots. In the
soil we grow vegetables that the school
cook will prepare for us to eat. That way
we have created an environmental cycle
24 the keep sweden tidy foundation – school and preschool/inspiration
that we can follow and examine.
“The way I think of Eco-Schools is
as a tool that brings our environmental
work forward”, Annika explains. “How
do we move on from here? How do we
get better? You have to think like that
all the time, and that’s where the Eco-
Schools programme enters the picture.
We do think about the environment in
many different ways at this school, but
Eco-Schools is what brings us forward.
We get everything down on paper, an action
plan and then – bang – something
concrete comes from it. It’s a tool that
somehow speeds up what we are doing.”
Susanne Ebers adds:
“Another positive thing is the frames
that the Eco-Schools programme has
given us on how to carry out the environmental
work, like for example with
the Environmental Council. The teachers
have decided the objectives, but the
children decided what kind of activities
there would be.”
In the front yard, right next to the
school building, there are several plots
where potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, radish
and flowers are growing. Salma, Fabian,
and Kasper are sitting by one of the plots
picking weeds.
“It is fun to see the things we have
planted grow and become flowers and
potatoes and things like that. But it takes
a long time of course,” says Kasper.
“Here we grow chewing gum, come
take a look over here,” Eva Östman calls.
The children race there.
“That’s right, it’s mint, it tastes like
chewing gum,” says Salma. “Mmmm, it
smells so good!” a
Facts/Pilgrimsskolan
Location: Hägersten
Municipality: the Municipality of
Stockholm
Type of school: Compulsory
school, age 6–11
Number of pupils: 120
Number of years with Eco-
Schools: 1