Empowering Students to Drive Daily Behavioral Change in Food Waste Reduction

Addressing food waste requires systemic shifts, but lasting change begins with daily behaviors—especially among students. Schools present a unique environment where students interact with food waste firsthand, making them critical stakeholders in driving meaningful change. Through structured interventions, behavioral nudges, and student-led initiatives, schools can create a culture where waste reduction becomes second nature.

Lunch Out of Landfills coordinates efforts to tackle food waste in schools across the country. By implementing standardized waste sorting, food recovery, and composting programs, the initiative empowers students to take ownership of their food waste footprint. This data-driven approach, in collaboration with WWF’s Food Waste Warriors, has provided schools with the tools necessary to make lasting behavioral changes.

Students encounter multiple decision points throughout their school day that influence food waste. Recognizing these moments and equipping students with the knowledge and tools to make sustainable choices can have a significant impact. Programs like share tables and composting reinforce the connection between student actions and broader environmental benefits.

Structuring the School Environment for Success

At the heart of behavior change is the environment in which choices are made. Implementing a four-bin waste sorting system—recycling, liquids, compost, and landfill—creates a structured approach for students to manage waste efficiently. Communities that do not have effective recycling or compost capacity can start by implementing share tables. Schools that have adopted this model have reported up to an 85% reduction in waste.

Engaging Students as Leaders and Change Agents

Behavior change is most effective when students take ownership of the process. Seventh graders Advika Agarwal and Shrusti Amula exemplified this leadership by initiating a composting program at Clarksburg Elementary in 2018. Advika formed a nonprofit Compostology, Shrusti founded the Rise N Shine Foundation and together with Lunch out of Landfills they funded the successful implementation of programs in over 40 schools. Their ability to secure funding and collaborate with administrators highlights the power of student-driven change.

Addressing Waste: The Role of Share Tables

Beyond composting, food recovery programs like share tables empower students to reduce waste at the point of consumption. In one school, a share table program recovered 2,508 cartons of milk, 1,000 fresh fruit items, and 900 prepackaged goods in just 38 days. Extrapolated over a school year, this represents over 11,000 cartons of milk and more that would have otherwise gone to waste. To safely recover uneaten food, a separate refrigerator should be used to handle perishables, which typically costs $350. Parent-teacher associations, philanthropic organizations like local Rotary Clubs, grants, or private funding are options to offset the cost for budget-strapped school systems. Simple nudges—such as allowing students to divert unwanted items rather than discarding them—create opportunities for redistribution rather than disposal.

Data-Driven Accountability

WWF’s Food Waste Warriors program has reinforced the importance of these initiatives by providing students with the tools to track and reduce waste effectively. Through collaboration with Lunch Out of Landfills, schools have adopted data-driven approaches to monitor progress and sustain impactful behavioral shifts. By integrating WWF's resources, Lunch Out of Landfills has expanded its reach, allowing students to sort their waste into categories such as untouched packaged food for donation, liquids, composting, recyclables, and trash. This hands-on approach diverts significant amounts of waste from landfills while instilling lifelong sustainability habits in students.

This partnership has demonstrated that small, daily interventions can drive large-scale impact when combined with institutional support and data-driven accountability.

To sustain behavioral change, measurement and feedback are essential. Data collection in participating schools revealed consistent patterns: 80–85% waste diversion and drastic reductions in contaminated recycling as well as recovering 50 pounds of food each day that is suitable for share tables. Schools can further gamify waste reduction by setting goals, rewarding improvements, and fostering friendly competition between classes or grade levels.

Scaling Impact Through Institutional Commitment

While student engagement is crucial, institutional support solidifies long-term impact. Rotary clubs have played an instrumental role in funding and scaling food waste programs. The Southern Frederick Rotary Club in Maryland, in partnership with other local clubs, raised $20,000 to support composting initiatives across 14 Frederick County Public Schools. These efforts bridge grassroots activism with structural support, ensuring that behavior change extends beyond individual students to influence entire school systems.

Creating Lifelong Habits Beyond the Classroom

Behavioral change in schools serves as a foundation for broader societal shifts. Students who develop waste-conscious habits bring these behaviors home, influencing family practices and community norms. The philosophy is simple: "Teach kids, and they will teach their parents." By embedding food waste reduction into everyday school routines, we cultivate the next generation of sustainability leaders.

The success of student-led food waste reduction programs underscores a fundamental truth: small, daily actions—when repeated and reinforced—lead to systemic change. Through structured interventions, student leadership, and institutional support, schools can become powerful incubators of lifelong sustainable behaviors.

Working with The Environmental and Sustainable Rotary Action Group, food recovery and waste diversion programs are already operating in Washington State, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine, Utah, Hawaii, and New York. Lunch Out of Landfills is actively working to systematize these efforts nationwide, ensuring that successful models of food waste reduction can be replicated across schools and communities throughout the country.

To learn more, reach out to Joe Richardson.

Joe Richardson has been focused on solid waste diversion programs since he served on the What’s Next Steering Committee in Frederick County in 2016. Working with remarkable students and teachers, Lunch out of Landfills started in 2018 at Urbana High School and Clarksburg Elementary school in Maryland. As a Rotarian, Joe secured funding from Local Rotary and with a matching district grant expanded to 14 schools in 2020. When schools reopened, Joe worked with the student-led Coalition to Reimagine School Waste to oversee the implementation of compost and waste diversion programs in 36 schools in 2022 diverting over 80% of school waste from Cafeterias. As a member of the Environmental and Sustainable Rotary Action Group (ESRAG), Joe is working with Rotary Clubs and schools in Maine, New Hampshire, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii, New York, California, and Melbourne, Australia.

The views and opinions expressed in this guest blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of ReFED.