By: Gracia Menendez
Staff Writer

Helping our environment is a great way to make a big difference in the world. There are many ways that everyone can contribute. Recycling, reusing, conserving water and composting are a few. At MAST Academy helping the environment is something that is taken to great consideration. The Eclipse Club as well as Green Champion have come together to start a composting program.

“We have been trying to make our school as zero waste as possible,” Elli Reyna said. 

Composting is when organic material such as food waste is broken down and turned naturally into a nutrient rich soil. MAST has just begun their composting journey starting in the cafeteria. They are their composting bins as well as volunteers to oversee them. 

“We are working to make sure to oversee that the compost that we are going to do is clean and that everything is right. We are doing that so that we can reduce food waste in MAST and in general,” Elli said. 

The MAST club called The Eclipse Club and Green Champion have been behind the composting project. The Eclipse Club is trying to spread awareness of the environment and educate on how to preserve the environment. They have been overseeing the recycling program at MAST and have recently started composting. Green Champion is a PTSA club. It was through them that MAST was able to receive a grant from the Wild Life Fund to help them obtain what they needed to make this all possible. They provide support and guidance for the students in the composting project. 

Getting involved and helping is very important. It is very simple to get started. You can contact the Eclipse Club and fill out their google form to sign up in overseeing the composting in the cafeteria. Once you are in, you can take as many shifts as you would like and are able to gain points while doing so. You would spend a few minutes of your lunch by the composting bins just making sure that the correct things are being thrown away for composting so that it does not get contaminated. 

“Any small thing that you might change in your life to be more environmentally friendly does make a difference. By being in the club you learn alot about how you can make a difference,” Elli said.