Students won $15K for their eco-friendly cardboard oil catchment boxes
Posted: December 19, 2023
What was once a dream for students in the close-knit communities of Waiʻanae and Nānākuli to learn about sustainability will soon expand to schools and students on Maui, thanks to one teacher’s dedication to ʻāina-based learning.
Kumu Michelle Pieper, a Hawaiian language teacher at Nānākuli High and Intermediate, teaches sustainability as part of her project-based learning initiatives. The student hui under her tutelage, Scrappahz Union, explores innovative and inexpensive ways to recycle and take better care of the environment.
The group’s name is a play on the word “scrap,” which refers to fights and confrontations while also reflecting its mission to upcycle “scrap” like cardboard and food waste into useful farm, garden, and shipping supplies.
“We’re still down to fight: we’re scrapping! We’re scrapping your cardboard, we’re scrapping your food waste, we’re scrapping your newspaper. I just like flipping the script and changing the narrative,” said Pieper, a 24-year teaching veteran.
While its goal is to educate, engage, and empower the youth of Waiʻanae, and instill a commitment to practice and teach sustainable solutions to waste management, the Scrappahz Union is cultivating farther-reaching impacts.
Successful sustainability program expands to west Oʻahu schools
In December 2022, the Scrappahz Union won $25,000 from American Savings Bank’s KeikiCo Contest, a business plan competition that awards students between $250 to $25,000 for their school.
Nānākuli High and Intermediate earned the top prize for using cardboard shredding machines to upcycle boxes into mulch for farmers, packaging for shipping as an alternative to bubble wrap, compostable planting pots, and other eco-friendly products.
In 2020, the group started Sustainability Saturdays as a way for students to give back to the community, and also earn community service hours to graduate. On the first Saturday of every month, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., people can bring their unwanted cardboard to Nānākuli High and Intermediate to be shredded and exchanged for fresh produce from local farmers.
“We trade with farmers for fresh produce, and we give them to the community, who gives boxes,” Pieper said. “We partner with MAʻO Organic Farms, Shaka Moa Eggs, Waialua (Fresh) eggs… We have a lemon farmer who is a retired teacher who participates, a mango farmer who is also a retired teacher, an ‘ulu farmer, and more.”
The success of the program has been infectious.
“We’ve presented the cardboard shredder to schools and local businesses, like the local fish pond, Urban Garden Center in Pearl City, Future Farmers of America, and Jack Johnson’s Kōkua Hawaiʻi Foundation,” Pieper said.
With the 2022 prize earnings, Pieper and her students purchased cardboard shredding machines for all schools on Oʻahu’s west side — including Nānākuli Elementary, Kapolei High School’s Ho‘ola Leadership Academy, and Hawaiʻi School for the Deaf and the Blind — so they could start their own zero-waste programs.
“We want to build that relationship. Talking about the injustice of Native Hawaiians… It is out here. It is on the west side, you know, so if nobody’s going to write a grant for it or get us a shredder, let’s buy a shredder for everybody,” Pieper said.
Moving ahead to give back to Maui
During a ceremony at Nānākuli High and Intermediate Monday, the Scrappahz Union received a second award by the American Savings Bank’s KeikiCo Contest. This time, the group won $15,000 for its cardboard shredding service’s three new, distinct products: an oil change box, oil spill absorbent mat, and cooking oil collection jar. Their goal is to reduce cardboard and paper waste, address oil spills, and reduce environmental impacts with an economically feasible solution.
The Scrappahz Union collaborates with the school’s automotive maintenance students to service and maintain the cardboard shredding machines used to sustain their cardboard upcycling efforts.
One of Pieper’s students noticed an oil disposal box in the shop and suggested that the Scrappahz Union could develop its own prototype.
Students lined the boxes collected on Sustainability Saturdays with compostable plastic bags and filled them with shredded cardboard pieces. They obtained oil from the school’s autoshop to complete multiple trials and prototypes before coming up with an inexpensive, effective solution.
Part of their business proposal this year is to share whatever earnings they make with schools on Maui, starting with those affected by the recent devastating wildfires.
Pieper helped her students to see the similarities between Lahaina and Nānākuli.
“Nānākuli is just like Lahaina. It’s brown. It’s one way in, one way out. The school is gone, the homestead. What are we doing for fire mitigation? These are real conversations that we need to be having,” she said.
Piper plans on taking the $15,000 in contest earnings to buy cardboard shredders for six or more schools on Maui, depending on how far the funds can stretch. She is working with lawmakers, community advocates, and educational stakeholders to determine which schools will receive the cardboard shredders. She also plans on bringing her students to help facilitate workshops on how to start the sustainability program and operate the machines.
She said, “I’m going to ship the shredders there. There’s no sense shipping them here. Instead, they can possibly hold it for us. I’m thinking one day, we’ll go around and deliver these shredders and do a quick little workshop for a couple of schools.”
Of the prize winnings, Pieper said her students are eager to spend all of it to help others in need.
“They (the students) have so much heart. They want to spend it on others.
“Aloha is a feeling. It’s the way you live. If I can engage them in aloha, I can teach them how to take care of the land, each other, and themselves. They are the most inspiring kids I’ve ever known,” Pieper said.
Featured image: Kumu Michelle Pieper, far right, accepts the $15,000 American Savings Bank’s KeikiCo Contest award with her students during a ceremony at Nānākuli High and Intermediate.