The University of California, Davis is a public research school in Davis, California. The University sits on 5,300 acres of land and is home to around 32,000 students, approximately 75% of whom are undergraduates (15.1). Davis was started as a university based around agricultural study. Even when the school’s liberal arts and science programs expanded, it maintained its agricultural roots, so it is not surprising that they have a composting system in place today. In 1999 an intern for Davis’s campus-recycling program started a group called Project Compost (15.2). Since Davis was such a large institution, home to many animal barns in addition to its sizable student body, the group knew that a lot of organic waste was being thrown into landfills instead of being recycled. In 2002, with the success of a trial run and a little money from the student government, Project Compost was able to start their own, student-run, campus-wide composting program (15.2). This is how it works:
Collection:
Davis’s composting program, unlike the one at Middlebury, is run entirely by students in Project Compost (15). Even after in the kitchens of the dining halls, student workers are the ones who separate the food waste from the trash and deposit it into the compost bins. There are also bins around campus where students can deposit pre-consumer waste. Project Compost also recently started “The Bucket Program,” which gives students the opportunity to buy buckets to put their compost in. Students then can return their buckets as often as they wish, full of food, to one of the dining halls during specified hours and will receive a new, clean bucket to start the cycle over again. For a more thorough description of The Bucket Program, click here. Items such as vegetables and fruit, meat, dairy, cardboard, cotton balls, and even hair, among others, can be placed in these buckets and are put in the kitchen compost bins (15.3). Project Compost members and volunteers then pick up all of the food scraps from the kitchens, put them into 32-gallon bins, and load them onto the electric vehicle that transports them to the composting site (15.4).
Processing:
The bins are taken to the 20-acre Student Experimental Farm where composting piles are set up (15.6). The food scraps are hand-emptied onto a bed of used animal straw and then covered with it (15.4). The straw is used because it discourages pests and helps speed up the decomposition. These piles are essentially the same as windrows, stretching 60 feet long, 10 feet wide, and, at their prime, 4 feet high (15.4). After sitting for ten weeks like this, a compost turner flips the piles five times in 15 days, keeping the temperature appropriately high. The moisture of the piles is controlled by tarps and a sprinkler system. After approximately three months, the piles are finished decomposing and the compost is ready to be used (15.4).
Distribution:
According to Alexa Sommers-Miller, Project Compost Unit Director and Pile Manager, Davis produces approximately 60-90 cubic yards of finished compost a year, all of which is given to University affiliates. The compost cannot be sold commercially because they would have to meet stricter composting regulations, which they don't have the money or tools to do (15.7). They will, however, sell some of their compost to students who ask for it (15.5). Davis’s composting programs seem to be expanding pretty quickly and should be able to reduce their waste significantly. The school is doing a good thing in paying the Project Compost members because that makes the job more attractive to other students, giving the program leadership for as long as it is needed. Once again, this program saves the school money and if it is given more money it will be able to make its individual composting program more prevalent and effective.
Collection:
Davis’s composting program, unlike the one at Middlebury, is run entirely by students in Project Compost (15). Even after in the kitchens of the dining halls, student workers are the ones who separate the food waste from the trash and deposit it into the compost bins. There are also bins around campus where students can deposit pre-consumer waste. Project Compost also recently started “The Bucket Program,” which gives students the opportunity to buy buckets to put their compost in. Students then can return their buckets as often as they wish, full of food, to one of the dining halls during specified hours and will receive a new, clean bucket to start the cycle over again. For a more thorough description of The Bucket Program, click here. Items such as vegetables and fruit, meat, dairy, cardboard, cotton balls, and even hair, among others, can be placed in these buckets and are put in the kitchen compost bins (15.3). Project Compost members and volunteers then pick up all of the food scraps from the kitchens, put them into 32-gallon bins, and load them onto the electric vehicle that transports them to the composting site (15.4).
Processing:
The bins are taken to the 20-acre Student Experimental Farm where composting piles are set up (15.6). The food scraps are hand-emptied onto a bed of used animal straw and then covered with it (15.4). The straw is used because it discourages pests and helps speed up the decomposition. These piles are essentially the same as windrows, stretching 60 feet long, 10 feet wide, and, at their prime, 4 feet high (15.4). After sitting for ten weeks like this, a compost turner flips the piles five times in 15 days, keeping the temperature appropriately high. The moisture of the piles is controlled by tarps and a sprinkler system. After approximately three months, the piles are finished decomposing and the compost is ready to be used (15.4).
Distribution:
According to Alexa Sommers-Miller, Project Compost Unit Director and Pile Manager, Davis produces approximately 60-90 cubic yards of finished compost a year, all of which is given to University affiliates. The compost cannot be sold commercially because they would have to meet stricter composting regulations, which they don't have the money or tools to do (15.7). They will, however, sell some of their compost to students who ask for it (15.5). Davis’s composting programs seem to be expanding pretty quickly and should be able to reduce their waste significantly. The school is doing a good thing in paying the Project Compost members because that makes the job more attractive to other students, giving the program leadership for as long as it is needed. Once again, this program saves the school money and if it is given more money it will be able to make its individual composting program more prevalent and effective.