Compost

Did you know that yard trimmings and food waste account for 24% of the United State's waste stream?  If all that "waste" was composted, just think of how much space it would free up in the nation's landfills!

In an effort to reduce the amount of waste produced by Saint Michael's College and divert it from our state's landfills, we are composting all of our food waste and yard trimmings here at our very own compost facilities!

Food scraps are collected from Alliot and Sloan Dining Halls.  Also, airtight buckets are available for interested students, staff and faculty to compost their own food scraps for FREE (it just costs a small amount of effort).  All members of the Saint Michael's College community can drop off their food waste to be composted at the loading dock of Alliot Hall (look for the barrels marked 'COMPOST').  If would like to obtain a compost bucket, e-mail GreenUpSMC@smcvt.edu or hellis@smcvt.edu.


Green Up ('08-09') students getting ready to hand out Compost Buckets!

Exciting Compost News!
This summer, staff from Physical Plant, members of Green Up SMC, and the Sustainability Coordinator met with dining to plan a new, more interactive system of collecting food waste in the Alliot dining Hall.  Be on the look out for our new Pilot Program (hopefully in place mid-September/early October) for collecting food scraps.  When you go to return your trays, first scrape all remaining food in the designated barrels along the wall.  It is as easy as that!  This new system will reduce the amount of water used in Alliot as we will no longer need the constant stream of water washing food waste into the collection barrel.  Another benefit is  that students, staff and faculty participate in the composting process!

Another exciting new development involves enhancing our current compost "recipe" with help from local Intervale Compost!  Members of Green Up, Physical Plant and the Sustainability Coordinator met with Eric Van Vlandren to talk about ways to improve the quality of our compost. 

The Future of Compost
We are hoping to increase and improve the composting infrastructure here at the college.  Our wish list includes:

(1) sifter to reduce contamination in our compost piles

(2) More compost drop-off locations to make composting for students more convenient (this involves constructing a compost shed to deal with concern about unwanted animals taking the food scraps)

(3) increase percentage of students, staff and faculty requesting compost buckets!

   


Did you know?

An average household throwing out one trashcan's worth of waste every week emits about 3,100 lbs of carbon dioxide a year, a figure that you could cut by 20% if you compost all kitchen and garden waste.  This would reduce your household's carbon footprint by 620 lbs of carbon dioxide a year!

 

"The Environmental Equation," by Alex Shimo-Barry, 2008