The Farmington Green Efforts Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to cover the full $4,500 cost of a custom compost-sorting table for Union Elementary School. The vote more than doubled the $2,000 the school's Student Council had asked for and freed the Union PTO from a contribution it had pledged to cover the balance.
Three Student Council members from Union walked the committee through the school's new cafeteria sorting program before the vote. They described visiting West Woods Upper Elementary to study the trash-sorting setup running there, then partnering with Hartford-based Blue Earth Compost to launch a three-stream system at Union — recycling, composting, and trash, with liquids separated. The program began in late April. Union Elementary Principal Caitlin Eckler told the committee that one of the school's custodians, referenced by students by first name only as Mr. Mark, has reported the school is already producing less than half the trash it generated before the program began.
The students said they took ownership of the program themselves. Student Council members trained their peers grade by grade, took turns as sorting leaders at lunch, designed posters, and read recycling and composting facts during morning announcements. "We are also empowered with this project," one of the students told the committee. "You know we are making a big difference in our community and its future. And what we started at Union School will inspire students to hopefully take action with their own families too."
A scaled-down version of the West Woods sorting station is the final piece. Sam Kilpatrick, the district's Director of School Facilities, designed both — the West Woods original around the larger cafeteria there, and the Union version around the smaller bins appropriate for K-4. Eckler told the committee the dimensions, measurements, and purchase order are ready to go. Fabrication and delivery total about $4,500. The school had originally planned to ask the committee for $2,000 and the PTO for the balance.
Committee member Patti Boye-Williams moved to fund the entire amount instead. The motion was seconded immediately. Two members on Zoom — Jennifer Wynn and a member identified at the meeting only as Matt — voted aye along with the room.
"It is unanimous," Boye-Williams said after the vote. "The Green Efforts Committee has just voted to approve spending the full amount for your compost, so you don't have to ask. And they can use those funds for something else."
The Green Efforts account held $39,037 as of Tuesday, according to Garrett Daigle, the Assistant Town Planner who staffs the committee. The fund is built from revenue from town solar generation and textile recycling and operates outside the regular town budget — accumulating like a savings account rather than being appropriated annually.
Union's three-stream setup is running on a temporary footing until the table is built. Wrappers can land on the floor when students miss the bins, and there is no surface for spills. The custom table is designed to integrate the bins, give students a clean surface to scrape spills back in, and make sorting workable for the long term in a school cafeteria.
"There's a very long line of students interested in being sorters," one of the school staff members told the committee, "and… a real big energy around the school of when are we getting started."
Blue Earth Compost serves Farmington and Unionville and works with public schools across Connecticut. Union's pickup was added to a route the company was already running for West Woods. The company has also offered to return finished soil from the school's compost — usable, the students noted, for plantings the school could site in its currently unused courtyard greenhouse.
The school is presenting the same proposal to the Union PTO next week. Boye-Williams's motion means the PTO contribution that would have closed the $2,500 gap is no longer needed.
The Green Efforts Committee meets next in June. Its agenda is expected to include a presentation from a solar developer about a proposed ground-mount array on the old Tilcon quarry off Route 6 — a project the committee discussed for the first time at its April 7 meeting. The same May 5 meeting also produced a recap of the April 25 town-wide cleanup — 89 volunteers, 2,200 pounds of trash.