September 1 :: Let's compost!

Greetings!

Composting is fun and not at all hard or complicated. I promise!

If you eat in the Brooks Student Center dining hall regularly you may have noticed that we have a new system up at the dish room window. We have started an on-campus compost collection program to truly close the loop with our local food project. Now the leftover food can be composted on campus, reducing energy and fossil fuel use in transport. The finished product will be used around campus for landscape projects as well as in the greenhouse and raised beds on the patio.

What do I do?

As you approach the dish room window where you used to just leave your dishes, we ask instead that you scrape any vegetables, fruits, grains (such as bread, pasta, or rice) and your paper napkins into one of the green bins in front of the window.

Anything leftover with meat, eggs, dairy (yogurt, milk, or cheese) in it can be left on your plate. The lovely dish room staff will make sure it gets to the local pig farmer. Any drinks can also be left right in your cup - we'd like to reduce the amount of liquid in the compost bins because they get very heavy. Any trash like to-go cups, muffin wrappers, popsicle wrappers, etc, can be left at the dish room window as well because those things aren't compostable. Confused? Just leave everything on your plate if you don't know where to put it.

Why are we separating out the animal products?

Meat, eggs, and dairy are high in protein and tend to take longer to compost than straight plant material (fruits, veg, grains, etc). By keeping out the animal products we can get more compost in a shorter amount of time. Hooray for that!

During the process of breaking down, the proteins in these animal products also tend to develop a certain aroma which can be quite potent. People often associate compost piles with stinking piles of rotting food but they certainly don't have to be that way. Since our composting site is near the Facilities operations (and near the soccer field) we'd like to cut down on any unpleasant smells.

The compost piles we have developed are sectioned off on three sides but are not covered. There are many creatures who are attracted by the smell of meat and so by keeping meat out of our compost we can limit the number of insects, bugs, birds, and mammals that would frequent the compost piles and thereby eliminate a possible future pest problem.

How does it work?

MAGIC! Just kidding. All the nutrients of the different food scraps we collect would form a clay-like super concentrated composted material. To prevent this, we are mixing in paper napkins to balance the food scraps and every time the food scraps are delivered to the composting site (twice daily!) someone from the grounds crew graciously covers them with yard waste from around campus. Grass clippings, shredded leaves, soil, etc are used as cover and act as a barrier against critters and weather in addition to balancing the rich nutrients from the food scraps. The whole process takes a few months and goes through a few stages before reaching the final act of sifting and filtering to create a fine, rich compost to help our plants grow.

Thanks so much for your help and participation! If we are all on the same page this project will be a great success and soon it will be second nature to sort your leftovers. Look for me next to the compost bins this week in the Brooks dining room. Let me know if you have questions!

Onward!
Tyler Kidder (aka Compost Collector)