The Zero Waste Program collects food scraps for composting to help make the University of Oregon more sustainable, and it is student-led and coordinated by CPFM. The program has two branches: the Zero Waste Program and the Garbage Services, with the former responsible for recyclable materials, said Phil Chesbro, Solid Waste and Zero Waste operations manager.
Composting has been part of the Zero Waste Program since 2008 and is helping the program reach its goal of 85% waste reduction.
“One of our top priorities is we don’t want food going into landfills because it has so much use outside of a landfill and its environmental benefit,” Chesbro said. “[Composting] is a really efficient use of resources to keep things more environmentally friendly.”
Students such as Hope Codiga, a fifth-year majoring in interior architecture, are excited about the university’s composting program.
“I think that’s a great way to reduce food waste,” Codiga said. “I know in places like campuses and things like that there’s probably a lot, especially with the dining halls and everything, so it’s good to hear that it’s not going to waste and [instead] getting reused.”
Brady Meinhart, a senior majoring in economics, shares similar sentiments as Codiga, and thinks reducing waste is important.
“I think it’s really cool that our school is making efforts to do composting because it does a lot for providing for nature and also reducing waste, and we’re definitely in a time when that’s super necessary,” Meinhart said.
The program collects food scraps from compost bins across campus and receives yard debris from the landscaping team. The lawn debris received from the landscaping team are then turned into compost and used for landscaping on campus.
According to Chesbro, food scraps are not composted on campus as they require permitting.
“The reason that it’s considered or needs permitting is because food scraps can be vectors for disease,” Chesbro said. “There’s certain safety regulations about how you manage that, [so] we send it to somebody who does that kind of permitting.”
Food scraps are collected from the various dining halls, vendors and other buildings on campus. Each building will leave multiple bins containing food scraps outside for trucks to pick up throughout the week. Most food scraps produced from the dining halls are compostable, even if the food is raw or spoiled.
The trucks that pick up food scraps, which are specially built to carry the load, are then driven to the Rexius soil company to be emptied.
“Usually the same day that it’s collected it goes right out to the composter and gets dropped off. It’s kind of a neat process,” Chesbro said.
Rexius puts the compost in large compost piles called windrows. These piles are typically 20 feet high and sloped down on the sides, creating rows of sloped mounds of compost. These rows are placed on top of tubes that suck air through them.
“That pulls the air through because compost needs a few things like carbon, nitrogen, liquid and oxygen,” Chesbro said. “It needs to have a certain amount of moisture, chemical properties between carbon and nitrogen for a balance, and then it needs the oxygen to feed that bacteria to break down the materials.”
Chesbro said compost helps lower the university’s carbon footprint as it stores carbon. According to CalRecycle, “compost holds more carbon than the atmosphere or plant and animal life combined.”
“The process of composting as opposed to putting food into the landfill also prevents the more potent greenhouse gasses from developing,” Chesbro said. “So in terms of a footprint, that’s kind of how composting helps the university lower its carbon footprint.”
Chesbro hopes to integrate composting on campus and is researching methods.
“It would be cool to see this on a larger scale because it’s not something I was aware of before just now,” Meinhart said. “If we were to have a composting bin for students to use, like in the dining halls specifically, I think that could be really useful and would make this even more productive.”
Students can get involved through the Office of Sustainability or the Student Sustainability Center.
