During Berkeley Lab’s Daughters and Sons to Work Day, the 112 visiting students and 60 volunteers explored ways to reduce waste. The Lab’s Center for Science and Engineering Education hosts the annual event and partnered with Sustainable Berkeley Lab to audit all waste from lunch and divert 90% of the waste from landfills. To achieve this goal, CSEE worked with their caterer to provide compostable plates and utensils and recyclable beverage containers and provided the color-coded bins for 2 separate waste stations where people sorted their lunch waste into compost, recycling, and landfill bins. After lunch, the group of students aged 13-16 measured the waste streams, graphed the results, and discussed the issues related to waste diversion. Achieving 90% waste diversion can be relatively easy with thoughtful preparation, good bins and signs, and willing participants. We applaud CSEE for taking on this zero waste goal. More »