What began as a grass-roots initiative from students and employees to reuse waste from the University Park campus dining halls, has since grown into a well-orchestrated campus-wide composting program, which is not only environmentally friendly but economically beneficial.
In spring 1997, Housing and Food Services decided composting waste from the dining halls was an idea worth trying and began a pilot program involving one dining hall. Since then, the program has grown to include all seven of the dining halls on the University Park campus, as well as The Nittany Lion Inn, The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel and the Penn State Cedar Child Care Center.
Compost is organic matter that has decayed and can be mixed in with soil to act as a fertilizer. In the dining halls, students' napkins and waste from the kitchens are put in bins for pick-up from the Office of Physical Plant. On an average day when classes are in session, the pineapple tops, stale bread, napkins and other food that can't be used collectively weighs in at 1 ton. Waste from students' plates is not part of the composting program yet, although a pilot program for that is under way. The next step is taking the waste to the College of Agricultural Sciences' farm operations, where, by combining the waste with things like manure from on-campus dairy farms, leaves and soybean fodder, it becomes compost. After that, the Office of Physical Plant distributes it to places like campus research plots, flowers beds and horticultural trial gardens.
The project has saved the University money in waste disposal fees and the costs associated with water and electricity for food that would normally go down a garbage disposal. It also reduces the amount of waste being put in landfills. And the nutrient-rich organic material helps make the soil healthier and the plants happier.