Composting

There are three main ways in which the University participates in composting: a small-scale backyard program for residences, a small-scale backyard program for departmental areas, and a large-scale manure composting program.

The manure and animal bedding generated in our central campus facilities is either composted on site or sent to local farms (Woodrill and Ignatius). The finished compost created on campus is highly valued by the Grounds department and used in flower beds and on green fields. Information on how much agricultural waste is sent for composting can be found in Recycling Performance.

In Spring of 2010, the Sustainability Office harvested 1.12 tonnes of finished compost from the "backyard" composters on campus, representing about a year's worth of collection. There is on average a 10-30% loss in mass from the starting product to finished, so students and cafeterias actually diverted more than the final harvested weight.

This section also has resources on composting at home, either in your backyard or indoors using worms to help speed up the process.