In an effort to keep more waste out of landfills and increase sustainability within the university, NC State implemented a new post-consumer composting program in Talley Student Union.
The two new compost stations in Talley are located next to One Earth World Cuisine and Port City Java, according to TJ Willis, associate director of University Student Centers.
University Dining at NC State has a history of composting its back-of-house food waste, but this is the first time it is trying to implement post-consumer composting.
Willis said the success of the new composting stations lies in the responsibility of students.
“Read the signs, we have them all over campus to tell how to recycle and compost,” Willis said. “Just one person can negate the efforts of many by contamination.”
The office of Waste Reduction and Recycling at NC State has been working on a waste diversion program on campus since 2001.
In 2012, 47 percent of campus waste was diverted from landfills. The current goal is to divert 65 percent of campus waste by 2015, according to the NC State Sustainability website.
The post-consumer composting program at Talley is one in a series of green initiatives at NC State, which include hundreds of indoor and outdoor recycling bins placed throughout campus, composting back-of-house food waste in dining facilities, composting bins for pizza boxes, the WE Recycle program and Pack N Give residence hall move-out.
August 2010 marked the beginning of the composting initiative in the dining hall facilities when an audit by Waste Reduction and Recycling found that 70 percent of waste generated by Fountain Dining Hall was compostable, according to NC State Sustainability’s website.
Since 2010, NC State Dining generated 1,348 tons of compost, according NC State Sustainability.
Composting instead of throwing away food waste can help enrich soil, clean up contaminated soil, prevent pollution and offer a multitude of economic benefits.
“We are starting small,” Willis said. “I don’t want to call it a pilot because I think it is here to stay, but it is here to grow. We are tweaking and improving it as we are implementing it here on campus.”
Willis said the extent of the diversion from landfills at NC State is both an exciting and a lofty goal.
“Everyone is going to have their different reasons to want to compost or to not want to compost,” Willis said. “The bigger thing is that we are trying to meet the university’s goal for sustainability.”
Mary O’Connell, a sophomore in bio-processing science, said she is encouraged by the new composting stations.
“We can better use our environmental resources when we compost,” O’Connell said. “These new centers are bringing attention to composting and forcing me to think twice before I just throw stuff away.”
Willis said the new initiative is forcing NC State as a collective to think more responsibly about environmental matters.
“We can be a leader,” Willis said. “If this is a success here, we can then implement this on other parts of the campus.”
Willis told students to be on the lookout.
“Know where to compost, know how to compost, and know that it is a wider effort,” Willis said. “Every individual effort helps, but every individual who doesn’t hurts the wider effort of the group. I believe we will be successful.”
