Environmental Studies Program
Campus Sustainability: Waste Management
Pre-Consumer Food Composting
Denison University’s composting program was
spearheaded in 2006 as part of a class project by then-first year student,
Meredith Atwood (2009). She conducted a pilot project that measured how much
food waste generated by Denison’s
dining halls every day could be composted. Additionally, she also publicized
the need for a composting program at Denison
through pamphlets and articles in student publications and eventually managed
to gain the assistance of the Physical Plant to start a permanent composting
program at Denison University. As a result
of these efforts, in the fall of 2007, Denison University
constructed a composting facility on its grounds, directly behind the Denison
University Physical Plant, or Facilities Services.
All
pre-consumer food waste from the dining halls – except those which would take
too long to be composted (meat, dairy, liquids and acidic fruits) – is now
collected and placed in the composting unit instead of being thrown away with
other garbage. Usable compost will be created every few months (it takes six to
eight weeks to compost, and then there is a one-month stage where it is left to
cure) from the food waste and will be used as fertilizer on the campus grounds
in place of commercial fertilizer. Denison’s
dining halls currently only compost preconsumer food waste, as a permit from
the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is required in order to compost
post-consumer food waste.
