What is composting?
-Collecting a mixture of biodegradable and decaying substances in order to produce fertilizer.
Compostable materials: fruit, vegetables, grains/bread, eggshells, napkins, tea bags, coffee grounds, organic foods.
Non-Compostable materials: meats, fats, oils, dairy products, bones, fish, salad dressing, greasy foods (french fries, potato chips, etc...)
Another Solution: Biogas Generation
What is Biogas?
-Biogas is a mixture of methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), and depending on the feedstock used, trace gases such as nitrogen, ammonia (NH3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and hydrogen.
What are Biogas Generators?
-Biogas generators create methane from decomposing organic materials thus producing an alternative environmental friendly energy source.
How is Biogas made?
-Biogas is created by a process called anaerobic digestion (AD). This
AD is an effective technology that treats organic waste. AD occurs when
bacteria decomposes into biological matter in an anaerobic (no oxygen is
present) environment.
(source: Biogas site)
What can we use it for?
-It can be used to run anything that it powered by natural gas.
This will deplete the expense of natural gas and also save the amount of natural gas that we aquire from the earth.
Ecological Footprint of Food Waste:
Before campus composting project:
Our Ecological Footprint is a calculation of all the variables that go into satsifying our daily needs. This includes electricity use, transportation, food consumption, and all other activities that you do or depend on that uses energy. The footprint uses a simple calculation to convert all of your energy expenditures into land area, giving your final footprint in hectares or acres. In 2002, Emily Wright calculated the footprint of Colorado College in 2001 and found it to be 574.1 hectares, which was 10% of the total campus footprint. She calculated another footprint for energy expended and found it to be 395 hectares, which was 7% of the total campus footprint. By offering new solutions such as composting and biogas generation, we can reduce both the footprint created by waste and the footprint created by using natural gas as energy.
Colorado College spends $15.00 per ton of waste to be hauled to a landfill through Bestway Waste and Recycling Management company. Ten percent of this waste is sent to Pueblo for an additional tip of $6.00 per ton. According to Emily's study, in 2001 Colorado College shipped about 750,000 pounds of food waste to a landfill. This cost a total of about $5,625.00. Also in 2001, Colorado College used 49,678,000 cubic feet of natural gas for heating, costing $588,273.43.
How a Campus Composting Project Can Benefit Colorado College:
Reduce waste:
After testing the composting project and using research from previous years, we took into account all food waste that we saved from sending to landfills. According to Maggie Mangan's Sustainable Food Report, in a single day, about 46% of the waste is compostable. We also conducted our own experiment for one meal at Rastall, separating foods to find that 54 pounds of food waste was not compostable and 115 pounds of waste was compostable. This shows that 68% of the waste we separated was compostable. If we assume that about 50% of our waste is compostable (food types vary day-to-day), Colorado College could potentially remove up to 375,000 pounds of food from its waste stream and save Colorado College $2812 in shipping costs of food waste alone.
Reduce chemical fertilizer consumption and costs:
According to a Colorado College student fertlizer study by Taylor Williamson and Arow Parsons-Pineda, every October groundskeepers spread 2.6 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer onto every 1000 square feet plot on the entire campus. It is a slow release method, which will provide the grass with nutrients over the course of the whole year. There are 1.5 million square feet of garden and lawn which is fertilized each year (John DeLaHunt). This means that every October, there are 3300 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer spread on lawns throughout campus! At roughly $1.50 per pound, this costs Colorado College $4950.00 per year. By creating compost piles and generating fertilizer from decaying foods and yard waste (leaves, grass clippings, etc.) we could save Colorado College almost $5,000.00 and save thousands of pounds of fertilizer from seeping into our groundwater and affecting other ecosystems.
Reduce energy consumption:
In Emily's study, she found that every year we use 49678000 cubic feet of natural gas for heating, which costs $588,273.43. By creating biogas through generators on campus, the amount of food we compost per year (we used 375,000 pounds) could produce _______ cubic feet of natural gas, displacing our use by ____% and saving us _____ dollars.
What other schools are doing with composting (source: National Wildlife Federation)
College Or University |
Location |
What programs they have |
costs/savings |
Alfred University |
NY |
Dining Hall Composting |
To be assessed |
University of Wyoming |
WY |
Pig-farm food and grease waste collection |
re-uses half of grease generated over 2 weeks (40 gallons) and free pickup |
Brown University |
RI |
Pig-farm food and grease waste collection |
free collection by farmers |
'' |
'' |
proposal for on-site composting facility |
$22,464 per year versus $13,332 per year at landfill |
Connecticut College |
CT |
Secchiaroli & Sons pig farm food collection |
6.5 tons collected weekly, reusing 245 tons per fiscal year |
Ithaca College |
NY |
composts 250 of 570 cubic yards of waste per year |
saves $11,250 per year |
Middlebury College |
VT |
had since 1993, but recently switched to on-site |
composted 280 tons of food waste in 1997 |
UMass |
MA |
7-10 tons per week, 700 tons of both yard and food waste per year |
saves over $19,000 per year |
Western State College |
CO |
Greenhouse Composting |
To be assessed, but 540 pounds of food waste generated per day |
State of the Environment Report at Colorado College
Maggie Mangan's Sustainable Food Report
Food Waste:
The average college student produces 640 pounds of solid waste each year, including 500 disposable cups and 320 pounds of paper!!! (source: The Earth Work's Group Recycler's Handbook)
Colorado College Food Waste:
14% of the total food Colorado College wastes is put on the carousel
to be eventually put down the disposal or in the garbage can during a typical
day. This is enough to feed approximately 110 people.
1.5 pounds out of every 10 pounds is thrown away by students.
(source: state of the environment report at CC)
Hunger:
It is estimated that one billion people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition. That's roughly 100 times as many as those who actually die from these causes each year.
About 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. This is down from 35,000 ten years ago, and 41,000 twenty years ago. Three-fourths of the deaths are children under the age of five.
In 1999, 31 million Americans were food insecure, meaning they were either hungry or unsure of where their next meal would come from. Of these Americans, 12 million were children.
(source: Hunger site)