Western junior Bridgett Jamison was raised in a rural community in Pennsylvania. Her family always kept a compost pile for any food waste they produced, but when she moved into Birnam Wood apartments on campus last fall, she said she was appalled by the amount of food scraps she and her roommates threw out each week.
"I was used to separating food [waste] out, and when I got here and no one was doing that, it was kind of a shock," Jamison said. "Especially when I realized how much garbage we were generating."
Jamison is an active member of Students for Sustainable Food, a campus club, and serves as the recycling representative for Birnam Wood. In fall of 2006, Jamison approached members of the Birnam Wood community council about starting a composting program in the apartments.
In January , residents from Birnam Wood apartments met at the community building to sign up for the FoodPlus! Recycling program run by Sanitary Service Company (SSC), a locally owned and operated, full-service recycling and waste collection company.
"This is the first place on campus where people are going to be able to do food composting in their living space," said Rodd Pemble, recycling manager for SSC, to a crowded audience. "This is the easiest place because you have kitchens and you’re probably preparing more food than somebody in one of the high-rise dorms."
Western began the program in June 2005 for yard waste, food-soiled papers and food scraps. A FoodPlus! recycling tote can be found on campus almost anywhere students buy food, said Seth Vidaña, campus sustainability coordinator at Western’s Office of Sustainability. Approximately 150,000 pounds of Western’s food waste is composted each year as a result of the program.
Pemble said he estimated one of the single largest volume items coming out of Birnam Wood is pizza boxes. Residents typically throw away pizza boxes because they have food on them. With FoodPlus! any food-soiled paper and food scraps are compostable.
"When we say any, that’s what we mean," Pemble said to an intent crowd of students. "So if you’ve learned about backyard composting before and you think: I can’t put dairy products in, I can’t put meat in, I can’t put bones in – that’s all out the window with our program."
Western senior Michelle Metzler, a student manager at the Viking Union Market, is known by her fellow co-workers as the "compost girl." Metzler is at the forefront of the FoodPlus! program in the Viking Union, where everything from uneaten food, milk cartons, coffee grounds, receipt paper, napkins, and paper cups are collected for composting.
"I’m just a weird kid who cares about composting," Metzler said. "I really try not to nag people, and I can’t always be there to police it, but I’m graduating this spring, so I really wanted to make some changes that are going to last."
As of fall 2006, all of Western’s food-preparing retail and dining facilities use FoodPlus! totes. The Viking Union fills at least one 64-gallon tote each day, while the Viking Commons fills eight or nine, Metzler said.
When Chris Kenney, resident dining operations director for Dining Services, started his position in November 2005, the Viking Commons went through a new food disposal unit every five months. He quickly tired of spending thousands of dollars to dispose of food waste.
Kenney said cooks in the dining halls already composted kitchen scraps, so he suggested scraping students’ uneaten food into totes instead of into the disposer trough.
Residents of each of the 15 apartments in Birnam Wood that signed up for the recycling program received a blue, two-gallon tote for collecting kitchen scraps. When their tote is full, students deposit their food waste in a 64-gallon container outside of the apartment building.
University Residences offered to cover the costs of FoodPlus! in Birnam Wood and chose stack four for the pilot because residents showed a strong interest in the program, said Kurt Willis, associate director of University Residences.
SSC collects food waste for recycling five days a week as part of the regular yard waste route using two trucks that run on biodiesel. After SSC picks up food waste, the contents are hauled to Recycling & Disposal Services, Inc. in Ferndale, and loaded into a 40-yard-long box. The container is taken to Green Earth Technology (GET) in Lynden, a 20-acre compost facility established specifically for compostable waste.
Pemble said GET makes 100-foot-long piles called "windrows" out of 500 cubic yards of food and yard waste. The piles are covered with blankets that allow water vapor to cycle through the waste, but trap odor molecules. The material sits on concrete pads with aeration channels running underneath for airflow, and hoses for added moisture. Temperature probes help monitor heat levels in the piles. Within a day or so the compost reaches 180 degrees, which helps paper products, meat, and animal bones decompose quickly.
Pemble said once the material decomposes, employees screen the compost for large pieces that didn’t break down. The compost is loaded into dump trucks and hauled to greenhouses, nurseries, golf courses, and landscapers.
"We end up with a valuable local product that somebody can then use in their business," Pemble said. "The material gets picked up locally, processed locally, and used locally."
Stephanie Harvey, co-partner at GET, said 30 percent of waste in Whatcom County can be composted using GORE technology. The facility currently handles 14 windrows on five acres, each taking approximately 60 days to completely break down yard and food waste. GET is recycling at a rate of 7,500 tons of material per year with the potential of reaching 10,000 tons each year, Harvey said.
Individuals like Jamison and Metzler, who are committed to reducing food waste, make the program possible. Pemble said approximately 3,500 Bellingham commercial and residential customers are currently signed up for the voluntary FoodPlus! Recycling program, which is available to 20,000 customers.
"These folks are motivated," Pemble said. "They want to do it and they want to do it right. We advertise very little for the program. It’s people talking to neighbors. That’s really how the program has grown."
Each ton of food waste Whatcom residents recycle locally means less money and energy wasted on transporting garbage to landfills in eastern Washington, Pemble said.
Landfill sites are lined with clay, and trash is thrown in and capped with more clay, Harvey said. This process removes oxygen and turns food and other waste into static material that is packed together and unable to break down.
"To compost and break stuff down you need to feed that biological process with microbes, the right bugs, and oxygen," Harvey said. "Landfills are managing their space and managing their water, but they’re not managing the breakdown."
Harvey said if SSC customers really decided to recycle they would see their garbage decrease by 80 percent.
Pemble said FoodPlus! has the potential to help lower Western’s overall garbage bill.
"You may not see it itemized on your tuition bill, but you are helping lower the operating costs of the entire campus by participating in this program," Pemble said to Birnam Wood residents. "It’s cheaper for us to pick up this material and recycle it than it is to pick up the same stuff and charge the college for garbage."
Back in Birnam Wood, Jamison hovers over her new tote under the fluorescent glare of her flickering kitchen light. Nestled in the folds of a biodegradable bag lining the blue tote rests a rainbow of waste. Banana peels, lemon rinds, mushy tomatoes, and a soiled paper bag filled with mangy mushrooms serve as Jamison’s first offering to the new FoodPlus! Recycling program that she helped start in her community.