You should compost…and that’s final (project)…

My partner Emma and I did our project on the topic of composting and we related this topic to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.  We wanted to look at the situation here on campus and in order to do so we began by researching the composting options that are present as of right now.  Once we had knowledge of these programs, Emma and I decided that we would create a survey that we would give to both our lab and a number of other random people we knew.  The main purpose of the survey was to measure the awareness level of students on the topic of composting in general as well as what composting options are available on campus. The questions that were presented on the survey are as follows:

1. Are you aware of whether there are any composting programs on the UW Madison campus?
2. Have you ever seen any locations where there are composting options on campus?
3. Do you know what composting is? What types of materials are compostable?
4. Do you know any benefits of composting? What are they?
5. Have you ever participated in composting?
6. If a composting option was made visible and easily accessible to students on campus, do you -think you would take advantage of the option and contribute? To what extent?
7. What would be the best place to post information about compostable items or composting systems?
8. What do you feel would be the best advertisement method? posters? flyers? something else?

The results:
50% of participants were freshmen
19% were sophomores
6% were juniors
25% were seniors

Question 1:  Yes: 44%  No: 56%

Question 2:  Yes: 69%  No: 31%

Question 3:  Yes: 81%  No: 19%

Answers provided for things that are compostable:

“coffee filters, most hydrocarbon materials”, “recyclables and food”, “food and flowers”, “food/organics”, “organic materials like fruit peels, eggshells”, “cardboard, food scraps, etc.”, “organic materials”, “eggshells, vegetable scraps,  fruits”, “organic materials except dairy”, “food and other plant material except meat, dairy”

Question 4:  Yes: 88%  No: 12%

Answers provided for benefits of composting:

“less waste produced, ease of disposal, utilization for fertilizer”, “better environment”, “fewer landfills due to reusing food for soil enriching”, “less space taken up in landfills, use as fertilizer”, “it is a more efficient and safer way to eliminate waste and the compost that results can be used as soil”, “good to put back into gardens”, “makes nutrient rich soil”, “organic                            matter is good for soil/growing”, “less waste, free soil”

Question 5:  Yes: 56%  No: 44%

Question 6:  Yes: 94%  No: 6%

Question 7:

Answers provided for best place to post information:

“dorms”, “next to trash/recycling bins”, “Memorial Union”, “near garbage bins”, “unions, dorms, cafeterias”, “DNR?”, “university website”, “facebook”, “Memorial Union, Memorial Library, Library mall, State Street”, “bulletin boards across campus”, “dorm trash rooms, by garbage disposals at dining halls”,  “email”

Question 8:

Answers for best advertisement method:

“flyers or email”, “posters with graphics complimented by text”, “dining halls’ TVs”, “info session”, “flyers on table, bigger bins that obstruct regular trash  bins”, “emails or posts on websites”, “representatives around compost bins who can inform people on what to do, campus wide advertising mass email”, “chalking, flash mobs, writing editorials in campus newspaper, facebook page for it, etc.”

The results that we received were both expected and surprising to me depending on the question.  About half of the people knew that there were options for composting at school so awareness could be a lot higher, but there were also a good number of people who have knowledge and experience with composting.  With this information along with majority of people who answered yes to whether or not they would participate in composting if it were made accessible to them, it is obvious that a composting program has good potential here on campus.  The only problem is that people need to be made aware of the programs that are already in place.  Also, many people are already aware of what composting is and the ways in which it can be beneficial so education wouldn’t be the main concern in implementing a program.  I think the main concern would actually be making people aware that this program even existed.  People are willing to help the environment in ways such as participating in composting if they are given the opportunity and it isn’t too hard for them to do so.

Using the information that we received from our survey, Emma and I decided to create an informational poster that would create awareness on the topic of composting.  Since many people answered that the best place to put the information on composting would be in dorms or near garbage and recycling bins we decided that we would post our finished product in the garbage rooms of the dorms on campus and possibly even in the dining halls near where students put their trays away.  Here is a copy of the poster:

In the end, Emma and I would have liked to have done more raising awareness and less researching, but we hope that through the awareness that we were able to create, someone’s interest was sparked enough to where they will want to make a change as well.  Since there are already programs for composting on campus it is very possible that sometime in the future a campus-wide composting program will be implemented.  It is our hope that this will happen, anyways.

Why Composting?

Sustainability is a hot topic this day and age.  The idea of “going green” has turned into a popular concept among many people and has become especially popular with teens and young adults.  While several options have been made more visible, such as buying “green” products and trying to avoid overconsumption, another beneficial option that has not been made as visible to the general public is composting.  Composting results in many benefits that would contribute to the sustainability of the earth.  While there are composting programs in place, it seems as though people are not always aware of this fact.  This is exactly the situation on the UW Madison campus.  Although there are multiple groups working to implement composting programs on the campus, there is not an overwhelmingly large amount of awareness surrounding this.  Considering all of the benefits associated with the act of composting it is a shame that this happens to be the case.  For this reason, it has been made my task to create awareness of both the benefits of composting and its presence on campus.

Sadly, the unawareness seen on campus is also present all throughout the United States.  Each year, tons of waste that could be recycled is thrown away in the garbage and ends up in landfills.  It is unclear whether or not this results from a lack of knowledge or just a lack of caring for the matter, but each year there continues to be a good amount of organic waste dumped into landfills.  Below is an image that provides an idea of how much compostable material is thrown in the trash:

Image from here

The fact that there is such a large amount of material that could be easily composted going into landfills each year is a shame, especially when one learns that, due to a lack of oxygen, materials in landfills experience very little decomposition (Christopher and Asher 7).  All it takes is common sense to know that putting such large amounts of garbage into landfills each year is not helping the earth in any way.  For this reason, composting should be promoted in cities, towns, municipalities, businesses, and even on college campuses such as UW Madison.

In order to get people to start composting though, it is important that they first know what compost is.  According to The American Heritage Science Dictionary, compost is “a mixture of decayed or decaying organic matter used to fertilize soil” (“composting”). Therefore, the act of composting is gathering organic materials into a compost pile and letting them decompose.  The organic materials do not simply decompose on their own though—they receive help from microorganisms (Christopher and Asher 4).  If these microorganisms are classified as “aerobic decomposers”, they require oxygen in order to survive explaining why the organic wastes put into landfills each year experience far less decomposition (Christopher and Asher 7).  Another important thing to know concerning composting is which materials are and are not compostable.  The image below gives an overview of these materials:

Image from here

The pile as a whole must contain both carbon and nitrogen.  Decomposers use carbon “as a cellular building block, besides consuming it as fuel” (Christopher and Asher 99).  They also require nitrogen which is the microorganisms’ source of protein.  Certain items, such as the ones provided in the image above, are seen as bad for composting for they attract pests and can make the composting process smell among many other things (“Materials for Composting”).

Once people are informed on the basics of composting they can begin to see the variety of resulting benefits.  A benefit that was already alluded to is the fact that composting organic materials leads to less waste being dumped into landfills each year.  Composting also has beneficial effects on soil.  Once the compostable items have been in a pile long enough and are almost completely finished with the decomposing process, the material they have produced is known has humus.  Humus is known to have a very beneficial impact on soil for it improves the structure of soil by making it “lighter and more absorbent” (Christopher and Asher 3).  Humus is also known to slow the process of soil erosion and restore topsoil (Christopher and Asher 3).  Not only does it restore topsoil, humus also helps to “clean up contaminated soil” (Environmental Benefits).  Another benefit of humus is that its use helps to protect both plants and the consumers of plants from harmful diseases, toxins, and parasites.  Compost is very clean by nature making it able to provide protection from these things.  Yet another benefit of composting can be classified in a more economic category.  Composting can end up saving people money that would normally be spent in order to purchase packaged fertilizer from a store.   Since all of the materials that go into compost piles are waste produced by the composter, they do not have to purchase anything extra in order to create fertilizer of their own (Christopher and Asher 72).  From a more global perspective, countries such as Belgium have used composting in order to produce forms of energy such as natural gas (Christopher and Asher 191).

Examination of the many benefits of composting on the environment provides evidence for why composting on the UW Madison campus is an idea that must be paid attention to.  Having over 42,000 students currently enrolled, UW Madison is not a small campus by any means (“Facts”).  Since the campus is large in both size and number of students, it is inevitable that a large amount of waste will be produced and if that waste is not disposed of conscientiously the campus itself will be contributing to large amounts of waste in landfills each year.  Due to this possibility, it is important that measures are taken to lessen the waste the campus contributes to landfills.  A handful of groups on campus have already become aware of this need and have made efforts to implement composting in some way or another.  These groups include We Conserve, F.H. King, the Greenhouse Residential Learning Community in Cole Hall, along with the residential dining halls.

The first of these groups, We Conserve, took action to implement a composting system back in 2009.  The project aimed “to compost more than 400 tons of food waste annually when fully implemented” (“Composting project”).  To start off, We Conserve set up compost option stations in Memorial Union and Capital Cafe with information that would hopefully educate those using the stations on how to dispose of their items.  Not only did the group collect compostable materials, they delivered it to the West Madison Agricultural Research Center where the mixture would be turned into compost (“Composting project”).  Another group that has made actions to implement composting in some form is the Greenhouse Residential Learning Community, although their project is on a much smaller level.  The learning community has made composting an option on their floor (1^st) of Cole hall.  They have also installed composting bins at Chadbourne and plan to add bins in Smith soon (“Eco Friendly Choices”).  Somewhat related, are the changes made by the University Dining and Culinary Services.  Although students do not receive the opportunity to compost their own food items, the compostable food items they leave on their trays after eating is composted by the dining staff (“Eco Friendly Choices”).  The campus organization F.H. King has chosen to take a somewhat different approach to composting.  First of all, F.H. King uses compost for their Student Garden.  The group has also created a program called “Full Cycle Freight” in which interns ride a bike around and pick up organic waste which they load into the trailer on the back of their bike and bring back to the F.H. King Student Garden (“Full Cycle Freight”).

Image from here

By looking at the number of groups involved in composting on campus, it is evident that there is an effort being made to make the campus more eco-friendly through the use of composting.  The only issue seems to be that most students are unaware that composting is occurring on campus and don’t really have a way to get involved themselves unless if they are involved with one of the mentioned groups.  Through a survey given out to a number of students by me and my partner, we found that some students were unaware of the specifics of composting and especially that it was occurring on campus.  For this reason, it is important to make sure that this knowledge is spread.  It may be unfeasible to try to get composting options put into dorms in the short period before this project is due, but the least that can be done is to create awareness and spread concern on the issue so that maybe a campus-wide composting program will be implemented sometime in the future.  People should know of the effects of their actions when it comes to unconsciously throwing away waste and how composting could help lessen these harmful effects.

Works Cited

Christopher, Thomas, and Marty Asher. Compost This Book!: the Art of Composting for Your Yard, Your Community, and the Planet. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1994. Print.

“Composting Project Takes a Bite out of Campus Food Waste (May 26, 2009).” News. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, 26 May 2009. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. <http://www.news.wisc.edu/16767&gt;.

“Composting.” The American Heritage® Science Dictionary. Dictionary.com. Web. 23 Nov. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/composting&gt;.

“Eco Friendly Choices.” Division of University Housing. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. <http://www.housing.wisc.edu/sustainability/choices&gt;.

“Facts.” University of Wisconsin–Madison. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. <http://www.wisc.edu/about/facts/&gt;.

“F.H. King’s Newest Addition: Full Cycle Freight!” Web log post. Fhking. WordPress.com, 25 May 2011. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. <http://fhking.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/f-h-king%E2%80%99s-newest-addition-full-cycle-freight/&gt;.

“Materials for Composting.” Composting for the Homeowner. University of Illinois Extension. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. <http://web.extension.illinois.edu/homecompost/materials.html&gt;.

Composting for a Better World

My partner Emma and I will make the world a better place by trying to better manage the large amount of trash that is produced on the campus daily.  Ever increasing amounts of trash in landfills and an overall lack of effort to go about the topic of trash in a more beneficial and future-oriented way is having a harmful effect on our planet.  We plan to promote and research a different way of going about trash.  This new way is composting.  By separating our garbage and making it an overall less detrimental thing, we hope to improve the situation.  We are aware that there is already a compost service available at the University, so we plan to look into it specifically and try to see how we could make it more accessible to students or even just make those on campus more aware that it exists.  In the process of doing this we will look and see why composting would be beneficial to our school and to the world overall.  We would also possibly start separating our own garbage to see how the process works and observe what happens.  Another possible aspect of our project could be to poll the students on campus to see their views on the topic of composting and use this information to specify our project to their wants and needs.

So far we have been researching the composting system here at UW Madison.  Through research I have found that attempts to implement composting have been made by a couple different groups.  These groups include We Conserve and the Greenhouse residential community in Cole Hall.  While the University has composted for a while, We Conserve came up with the idea to add food to the mixture.  This addition ended up being very beneficial to the quality of the compost.  They began their project in 2009 and they worked with the Wisconsin Union’s food services.  Through this relationship, they established two food waste reservoirs located at Memorial Union and Grainger Hall’s Capital Cafe.  The Greenhouse residential community of Cole Hall made the goal of establishing composting within University housing.  Also related to University Housing are the food services on campus besides those provided by the Unions.  Through observation I have learned that at each of these establishments there is a composting barrel that employees are told to use when cleaning off trays. One challenge that I read about that was experienced by We Conserve was dealing with educating people on how to sort their food for composting.  Seeing this issue, Emma and I may be able to try to target this problem next by first trying to make students aware of the composting system, and then trying to teach them how to do it correctly.
Sources:

Click to access WECONSERVEvfinal%20report.pdf

http://www.news.wisc.edu/16767