Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society

South Campus Composting Program Turns Food Waste Into Rich Nutrients for Plants

Monday, October 14, 2019, By News Staff
Share
sustainabilitySustainability Management

composting graphicSyracuse University Sustainability Management has launched a Student Composting Program for South Campus residents. The goal is to reduce the amount of organic material going into trash dumpsters.

In January 2019, Sustainability Management piloted a composting program with a small group of volunteers living in South Campus housing. The program ran for 10 weeks and about 100 pounds of food scraps were diverted from the waste stream and delivered to the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA) Composting Facility. The food scraps were turned into compost—a high-nutrient material that can be used in gardens and lawns to add back nutrients that are necessary for plants to grow. The compost is a replacement for synthetic fertilizers that harm streams, lakes and oceans.

More than 100 students are now participating across South Campus.

Jovan Thomas ’20, a student intern from the Falk College Public Health program, is running the program along with his program mentor, Meg Lowe, Sustainability Management sustainability coordinator.

Based on their apartment location on South Campus, participating students have an assigned day for pick-up of their compost bucket. Thomas sends a reminder the night before by text message to place their bucket on their doorstep. Thomas then travels around South Campus and exchanges the full compost bucket with a clean bucket. The food scraps are weighed and then delivered to a food scraps dumpster that will be taken to the OCRRA Composting Facility.

The fall 2019 program has exceeded expectations. In the first four weeks, 526.4 pounds of food scraps were diverted.

“As a Sustainability Management intern, my involvement in the composting program evokes the side of me that wants to make a difference,” Thomas says. “As a Public Health student, I seek to pursue a career for the betterment of society, which is also why I took this internship. In my short time here, I have learned more about improving the environment and I learned that composting is beneficial to our human health.”

“As Jovan’s program mentor, I am excited to show him how projects like this are implemented on the University campus and what it takes to ensure their continued success,” says Lowe. “As a Public Health student, Jovan Thomas is taking this a step further and researching why compost is such a benefit to all of us and the environment.”

Most of the trash collected in Onondaga County goes to a local waste-to-energy facility, where it is incinerated. Typically, food scraps are the heaviest and wettest items in the waste stream. By removing the food scraps, not only is nutritious organic matter created, resources are saved by not having to burn them at the waste-to-energy facility.

The Student Composting Program took nearly two years to implement. If it proves successful, it will remain a permanent program on South Campus.

South Campus residents who have not already signed up to participate may email sustain@syr.edu to request to join the program. In the email, include a South Campus address and a phone number that receives text messages.

For more information on sustainability programs and classes, visit sustainability.syr.edu, follow @SustainableSU on Twitter and Instagram, and check out the Syracuse University Sustainability Facebook page.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Exploring the Existence of Life at 125 Degrees Fahrenheit
    Tuesday, September 26, 2023, By Dan Bernardi
  • Cool Class: Mona Awad’s Art of the Fairy Tale
    Tuesday, September 26, 2023, By Dan Bernardi
  • How Climate Warming Could Disrupt a Deep-Rooted Relationship
    Tuesday, September 26, 2023, By Dan Bernardi
  • Be Proactive: How to Keep Yourself Safe on Campus
    Tuesday, September 26, 2023, By Christine Weber
  • Academic Strategic Plan Launch Symposium Set for Sept. 26
    Monday, September 25, 2023, By Wendy S. Loughlin

More In Health & Society

School of Education Faculty Publish ‘Lesson Study With Mathematics and Science Preservice Teachers’

“Lesson Study with Mathematics and Science Preservice Teachers: Finding the Form” (Routledge, 2023) is a new overview of the fundamentals of lesson study edited by School of Education Dean Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Professor Sharon Dotger and Jen Heckathorn G’22, director for…

International Drug Policy Academy Offers a Unique Opportunity for Students Interested in Addiction Studies

Needing one more class or an independent study to complete a master’s degree in public health, Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics student Emily Graham turned to Public Health Professor Dessa Bergen-Cico for advice and Bergen-Cico offered the opportunity…

Hendricks Chapel Dean, Chaplains and Students Attend Parliament of the World’s Religions

Representatives from Hendricks Chapel recently attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions, held in August in Chicago. This year’s theme was “A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom and Human Rights.” More than 7,000 participants from more than 95 countries, representing…

Roundtable: 3 School of Education Alumni Define ‘Human Thriving’ in the Context of Global Diversity

“Human thriving” is among the areas of distinctive excellence enumerated in the University’s 2023 Academic Strategic Plan. This concept is inspired by the words of Chancellor Erastus Haven. In 1871, he charged Syracuse students “to thrive here, to learn here,…

Lerner Center and Maxwell X Lab Join Sheriff’s Office to Reduce Illicit Drugs’ Impact

The Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health and Maxwell X Lab have partnered with the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office on an initiative aimed at reducing the impact of opioids and other illicit drugs. The two centers, both…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.