2008 Woodie Awards
Composting Heats Up Around Campus
Zach Mermel and Jennifer Kline
Issue date: 8/22/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
What happens to the leftover food at the "J"? Are the coffee grounds from The Depot thrown away? What are all of those 5 gallon buckets doing around campus? These are some of the questions that are routinely asked of the compost crew at the [Humboldt State] Campus Recycling Program.
We'll answer the bucket question first. There are currently 16 compost buckets at different locations throughout Humboldt State.
Students and faculty members are encouraged to drop off any biodegradable food-related items (except meat and dairy) in these buckets. This includes paper napkins and paper plates! These buckets are picked up every week and composted at the Campus Recycling Program's Compost Demonstration Site. Composting diverts this waste from going into our landfills. The finished compost, or "Black Gold," can be used in landscaping, gardening and even in toxic waste cleanups.
For many years, the food waste from the "J" cafeteria had been diverted to a local pig farm. However, new legislation passed in the late 1990's eliminated this diversion option. In 2000, the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT) purchased the Wigwam, an industrial-sized vermicomposting system that, in 2002, produced 25 tons of high quality vermicompost. Up until 2004, all of the "J" cafeteria's food waste was processed here. In that year, the wigwam had to be moved off of the former CCAT site to make way for the Behavioral and Social Sciences building. Ever since then, all food waste at Humboldt State (including coffee grounds from The Depot and the J) has been tossed into the dumpster, where it is then transported more than 140 miles to one of two landfills outside of Humboldt County.
According to the Arcata Garbage Company, Humboldt State's waste is trucked to the Medford, Ore. and Redding, Calif. landfills at a cost of about $80 per ton. To put this in perspective, Plant Operations states that in 2006 the main campus generated 787.9 tons of garbage at $80 per ton. We would have spent $63,032 in one year to remove the waste generated on this campus.
During the month of April, the Campus Recycling Program performed two audits of waste at Humboldt State. Our goal was to determine how to effectively divert biodegradable material from the conventional waste stream. The first audit involved food waste at the "J". For one week, waste was weighed using an industrial capacity scale. The results were startling. 579.5 pounds of pre-consumer food waste (waste generated from food preparation), 1,456 pounds of post-consumer food waste (leftovers), and 212.5 pounds of biodegradable paper waste was tallied in a one week span! If you don't have your calculator handy, that is 2,248 pounds of waste generated in the "J" in a week's time.
Our second waste audit was weighing the amount of paper towels generated in 3 of the 115 bathrooms across Humboldt State. Over the course of six days, dedicated members of the Campus Recycling Program collected and weighed 124 pounds of compostable waste from bathrooms in the Library, Harry Griffith Hall and Siemens Hall. Even as a rough estimate it is safe to say that thousands of pounds of paper towels alone are generated on this campus every week!
Practically all of the waste recorded in these audits is biodegradable. However, meat and dairy products in the post-consumer food waste stream would be a vector for disease, and thus cannot be composted under typical conditions.
Enter the biodigester. An anaerobic biodigester is a self-contained system that uses bacteria to break down biodegradable materials. The biodigester can be fed pre- and post-consumer food waste (including meat and dairy), certain manures and a limited amount of cellulose-based products, such as paper towels. The resulting solids can then be composted providing fertile by-products that could be used in landscaping and garden projects.
The biodigestion process also produces biogas, which can be used directly as a renewable energy source. Work is currently underway to determine whether a biodigester should be one of the first projects funded through the Humboldt Energy Independence Program, starting next semester.
We would like to thank Arnold Waddell and the student employees at the "J" dining cafeteria for their assistance with performing the food waste audit. Additional thanks are owed to Ed Goodeyon and his team of custodians for their willingness to let us perform the waste audits of the three bathrooms in our study.
Zach Mermel is the HSU director of compost operations. Jennifer Kline is the HSU compost innovation and zero waste event coordinator.
We'll answer the bucket question first. There are currently 16 compost buckets at different locations throughout Humboldt State.
Students and faculty members are encouraged to drop off any biodegradable food-related items (except meat and dairy) in these buckets. This includes paper napkins and paper plates! These buckets are picked up every week and composted at the Campus Recycling Program's Compost Demonstration Site. Composting diverts this waste from going into our landfills. The finished compost, or "Black Gold," can be used in landscaping, gardening and even in toxic waste cleanups.
For many years, the food waste from the "J" cafeteria had been diverted to a local pig farm. However, new legislation passed in the late 1990's eliminated this diversion option. In 2000, the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT) purchased the Wigwam, an industrial-sized vermicomposting system that, in 2002, produced 25 tons of high quality vermicompost. Up until 2004, all of the "J" cafeteria's food waste was processed here. In that year, the wigwam had to be moved off of the former CCAT site to make way for the Behavioral and Social Sciences building. Ever since then, all food waste at Humboldt State (including coffee grounds from The Depot and the J) has been tossed into the dumpster, where it is then transported more than 140 miles to one of two landfills outside of Humboldt County.
According to the Arcata Garbage Company, Humboldt State's waste is trucked to the Medford, Ore. and Redding, Calif. landfills at a cost of about $80 per ton. To put this in perspective, Plant Operations states that in 2006 the main campus generated 787.9 tons of garbage at $80 per ton. We would have spent $63,032 in one year to remove the waste generated on this campus.
During the month of April, the Campus Recycling Program performed two audits of waste at Humboldt State. Our goal was to determine how to effectively divert biodegradable material from the conventional waste stream. The first audit involved food waste at the "J". For one week, waste was weighed using an industrial capacity scale. The results were startling. 579.5 pounds of pre-consumer food waste (waste generated from food preparation), 1,456 pounds of post-consumer food waste (leftovers), and 212.5 pounds of biodegradable paper waste was tallied in a one week span! If you don't have your calculator handy, that is 2,248 pounds of waste generated in the "J" in a week's time.
Our second waste audit was weighing the amount of paper towels generated in 3 of the 115 bathrooms across Humboldt State. Over the course of six days, dedicated members of the Campus Recycling Program collected and weighed 124 pounds of compostable waste from bathrooms in the Library, Harry Griffith Hall and Siemens Hall. Even as a rough estimate it is safe to say that thousands of pounds of paper towels alone are generated on this campus every week!
Practically all of the waste recorded in these audits is biodegradable. However, meat and dairy products in the post-consumer food waste stream would be a vector for disease, and thus cannot be composted under typical conditions.
Enter the biodigester. An anaerobic biodigester is a self-contained system that uses bacteria to break down biodegradable materials. The biodigester can be fed pre- and post-consumer food waste (including meat and dairy), certain manures and a limited amount of cellulose-based products, such as paper towels. The resulting solids can then be composted providing fertile by-products that could be used in landscaping and garden projects.
The biodigestion process also produces biogas, which can be used directly as a renewable energy source. Work is currently underway to determine whether a biodigester should be one of the first projects funded through the Humboldt Energy Independence Program, starting next semester.
We would like to thank Arnold Waddell and the student employees at the "J" dining cafeteria for their assistance with performing the food waste audit. Additional thanks are owed to Ed Goodeyon and his team of custodians for their willingness to let us perform the waste audits of the three bathrooms in our study.
Zach Mermel is the HSU director of compost operations. Jennifer Kline is the HSU compost innovation and zero waste event coordinator.
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