Campus Composting

K-State is entering its second year now of composting food waste from campus dining facilities for use in student farms. Over the 2008-2009 school year, kitchen waste and food that would otherwise be trashed because it is not served to students has been collected twice a week from the Derby and Kramer dining centers.

This food was then brought to K-State Agronomy's North Farm and K-State Horticulture's Willow Lake Student Farm to create compost for use in fertilizing their crops. Some of these crops were even sold back to the dining centers, closing the resource loop and making for some high quality student grown meals on campus.

Entering its second year, the program is taking on new partnerships with K-State's Facilities Services in order to help with transportation and also to use some more on-campus materials like collected leaves.

If the finances can be developed, the program may eventually include post-consumer food waste from the dining centers as well as waste from the Student Union's food court. This would be especially nice, given that the Student Union made the commitment to use compostable disposable utensils, plates, and clamshells this past year.

See the following press release for more info:

COMBINING CAMPUS FOOD WASTE WITH EXPERTISE IN AGRICULTURE, K-STATE STUDENTS AND FACULTY UNDERTAKE COMPOSTING EFFORT THAT BRINGS FOOD FULL CIRCLE

News release from K-State Media Relations: http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/april09/compost42209.html

Sources: Ben Champion, 785-313-3085, champion@k-state.edu; DeAnn Presley, 785-532-1218, deann@k-state.edu; and Rhonda Janke, 785-532-0409, rrjanke@k-state.edu. Video available: http://www.k-state.edu/media/audio/podcasts/compost.mov News release prepared by: Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, 785-532-6415, ebarcomb@k-state.edu

Type:Waste Management / Minimization

Investment:

Use of the Agronomy Farm and Willow Lake Student Farm has been subsidized by grants for operating those farms. In addition, the Willow Lake Student Farm has paid its student workers for labor in transporting the food scraps, approximately $1000 in labor throughout the year. Gas and mileage for the trucks cost approximately another $300 for the school year. Finally, the staff of the dining centers have worked harder to make the program work.

We look forward to what the new partnership with the campus recycling program through Facilities Services might bring.

Impact:

In its first year, the new composting program handled over 12 tons of food waste, producing an estimated 6 tons of compost. This is food waste that would otherwise have gone through the garbage disposals of the dining centers, using energy and water, and now is being converted to healthy and nutritious food for plants at the Willow Lake Student Farm and the Agronomy Farm.

Tagged:composting, waste-management, waste-minimization