Green Pizza

Arch Street turns leftovers into earth-friendly items by Meredith Blake

Turning their leftover pizza crusts into organic composts is just one way that the Arch Street teen center is going green.

"Our goal is to be the greenest building in town," said Kyle Silver, the executive director of the teen executive director of the teen executive committee. For the past few months he has been working with the teens to make the center a role model for green living.

The teens recently stepped up their efforts to become green after realizing how much was being thrown away.

"Noticing how much energy was being wasted, and especially after dances how much waste there was, I realized that making small changes can make a big impact," said committee member and Greenwich High School sophomore Sebastion Dostmann, 16.

"We hope that all this shows how Arch Street is starting a green movement," said Dostmann.

And although the teens recognize how important these steps are in making and impact, their hope is ultimately to raise awareness about all the ways everybody can help the environment.

"It is our goal to raise awareness... A lot more can be done to prevent global warming and to reduce your carbon footprint," Dostmann said. One of the first things Silver did for the teen center was purchase an automatic composter that turns food scraps into composts.

Left over pizza slices crusts are tossed into the machine, which slowly heats up and transforms them. And although it is a little smelly, it is eye-opening for the students to see how it works, said Silver.

"It's been a unique experience for a lot of people... But the more you see the full circle of living, the more you realize how important all this is," Silver said.

To date, they have accumulated more than 20 pounds of compost, which they will use in the organic garden they are creating next to the building.

In the garden, they will plant arborvite, climbing hydrangeas and smaller shrubs. The plants were donated by Sam Bridge Nursery.

Along with the composter and garden, the teen center also made other changes, such as switching all of the light bulbs from regular to the energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.

They first experimented with the change by only switching the first floor. The results were immediate. They saved $200 in their energy bill last month.

Ridding their cabinets of cleaning chemicals and cutting back on bottled water by putting in a filtration system in the water fountains are other steps they are taking to become environmentally friendly, according to Silver.