Composting can provide both a means of managing organic waste, and a vehicle to teach Science at all levels of schooling. In response to a local organic waste issue a process has been developed to compost waste from an olive oil press and analyse the resultant compost. In this article, the composting process is described in a manner that can be effectively used in the classroom, along with the findings of our research into successfully composting the olive waste. This process has the potential to be applied to many other forms of organic waste generated by schools. A series of experiments to evaluate the quality of the product based on the Australian Standards for Compost have also been developed. These experiments have been designed to provide students with a series of tools that they can use in the development of their own scientific investigations into compost. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)