Opinion
Recycling food by composting
The Clarion \ Feb. 26, 2010
by Aislinn Dugan
Contributor
Eating food is something the majority of
us do multiple times a day. For most of us
that means perusing the buffet at good ole
Myers Dining Hall. Food is essential to
survival, but what about the food that we
don’t eat?
After a long day of
classes, studying, or
practice that old saying
our eyes are bigger
than our stomachs
often comes into play.
In an ideal situation
students would take
only as much food as
they are able to eat.
Since we can’t put
back the food that we
don’t eat due to health
codes we have to clear
our plates into the
trash bins, which are
picked up and hauled to the landfill where
waste is left to rot and give off harmful
gases like methane.
Afood waste audit conducted by students
at Harvard University found that on average
a student wastes over half of a pound of
food per day. If these numbers were applied
to our campus of over 600 students this
would add up to be over 3001bs of food
waste per day which adds up to over 30 tons
per school year That is a lot of waste!
COMPOST!
§.
What about composting? The process
of composting involves the break down
of organic matter (food waste) by
microorganisms present in dirt, into a
useable nutrient rich substance (soil).
Decomposition and nutrient cycling are
essential processes that occur everyday
in nature; dead leaves or organisms
decompose on the
forest floor leaving
behind nutrients that
fertilize the soil and
promote new growth.
The composting
of food waste is
nature’s process of
decomposition on
a larger scale. For
composting to be
successful the proper
ratio of carbon to
nitrogen must be
achieved, as well as
proper levels of pH,
temperature, moisture
and oxygen.
Compost requires the right recipe of
ingredients focused primarily on carbon rich
material such as dead leaves, woodchips,
straw, waxed cardboard (food stained
cardboard that is not recyclable=pizza
boxes), paper, etc., and nitrogen rich
material such as food waste and grass
clippings at a ratio of about 30:1.
Once the proper recipe is achieved the
pile is left (turned periodically to increase
aeration) to the microorganisms that break
down the waste into nutrient rich soil. The
process can be as short as a few weeks
up to about six months depending on the
composting method.
What about the smell? If composting is
done properly (above requirements met)
the pile will not give off an unpleasant
odor and will smell like a pile of dirt. If
the compost does not have enough aeration
which means the microorganisms do not
have enough oxygen to survive the pile
will start to rot and give off an odor What
you smell at the dump is rotting waste that
is decomposing anaerobically, or without
oxygen. If done properly compost will
not only save money but will also provide
useful organic fertilizer
Many colleges across the country
use composting as a sustainable way of
diverting waste from the landfill, producing
usable fertilizer for landscaping, reducing
costs of waste removal, raising awareness,
etc. Here at Brevard College we have a
responsibility to practice environmental
sustainability. In order to waste less food
we must be aware of how much we put
on our plate; we must also be aware of
alternative methods of waste recycling and
incorporate these methods by estabhshing
composting here at Brevard College.
If you are interested in helping establish
composting here at Brevard please come to
BC Greens meetings on Tuesdays at 6pm
in the MG Lobby. Or contact duganad@
brevard.edu.
Petroleum, cont. from p 5
capital of precious resources and watch
their value grow.
What is the right thing to do? Should
we continue to bum the petroleum that the
biosphere and lithosphere joined to create
during the last 540 million years so that it
is gone within a hundred years?
Or should we cut back on its use
dramatically so that generations for
thousands of years can continue to develop
the fascinating array of useful products
made from petroleum?
If we cut back, we don’t have to give
up driving. We just have to drive greener
Natural energy is easily converted into
electricity.
We are at the dawn of the age of the
electric automobile. Battery technology is
advancing rapidly. Lithium batteries are the
most efficient storage cells.
A new energy market in lithium is
emerging rapidly. Countries like China,
the U.S., Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina find
themselves sitting on large lithium deposits
disseminated through the salts of the large
dry lake beds in their desert regions. An
estimated 14 million tons of lithium reside
in these deposits.
Exploitation of these resources will
undoubtedly be accompanied by new
enviroimiental problems. Fortunately, it is
likely that lithium will soon be extracted
directly from seawater, where an estimated
230 billion tons are dissolved, a virtually
unlimited supply.
Any country with access to the sea can
become a lithium producer Lithium can be
recycled endlessly so once it is placed in the
resource stream it will stay there. Gasohne,
on the other hand, is a one-use product and
then it’s gone.
Do we, as a society, have vision to get us
there? The whole promise of a sustainable
society is threatened by ineffective people
in power quivering in their offices afraid to
make a bold move because of what might
result, even though inaction will clearly
be disastrous.
This is one of numerous great challenges
that need to be addressed by the rising
generation. The price tag of the transition
might be scary but the price of inaction will
be much more.