Compost

Angela Taylor, Emily Herrick, Noah Carrick

“Composting is a controlled, aerobic (oxygen-required) process that converts organic materials into a nutrient-rich soil amendment or mulch through natural decomposition.”

Benefits and Importance of Composting:

A way to manage waste more sustainably
Reduce the volume of materials, such as leaves, grass, yard trim, and food scraps, that would be disposed of in landfills or incinerators
- Prevents greenhouse gas emissions
Saves money, reduces fertilizer/pesticide use, builds healthier soil, conserves water, and improves plant growth.

Issues with Composting

Although anaerobic composting may produce more methane, aerobic composting still produces carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.
Bad compost mixes might be detrimental to soil health.

Scales of composting:

Global

European Composting Network is an organization with 66 members from 27 European Countries. Members include all European bio-waste organizations and their operating plants, research, policy making, consultants and authorities. The objectives of ECN are to promote visions of sustainable systems for organic waste management through integration of strategies, technological development and improvement practices.

National

New Soil is a West Michigan-based commercial composting service offered through Arrowaste. This service offers commercial sized dumpsters to businesses for their composting needs. This allows large businesses here in Michigan to take steps towards caring for our environment.

Local

GVSU Sustainable Agriculture Project has a composting unit available to students. They then use this to fertilize their soil and create produce to be sold. We would like to implement composting bins available to all students and then direct the organic materials to the SAP.

Composting options on campus:

Vermicomposting

Composting with worms is a great way to help your compost. Worms help with the nutrient cycle in the compost as they convert the waste from the food into manure an energy source for the plant.

"Backyard" Composting

Backyard composting is a great idea because you will improve your own soil in your own garden. You don't need to have a compost bin inside your house either as your bin could be in your garden area or just add the organic material right to your garden.

Implementation Plan:

With our plan, we will be implementing an easy way to being composting for students attending Grand Valley. We would like to provide bins to be distributed to each new student at the beginning of the academic year.

Timeline

Summer 2024: Bins will be bought in bulk, and extra federal student workers will be hired to collect composting bins on and off campus.

Academic year 2024-2025: Bins will be distributed to the Freshman class during Transitions, and delivered to off-campus apartments during the first week of classes. Bins will also be available at Kirkhoff to all students. One bin per household or dorm will be encouraged. Bins will be collected bi-weekly by GVSU Parking Facilities and delivered to the Sustainable Agriculture Project Farm. A composting and agriculture class will be added to the ENS curriculum and available to all students where they will work on the Sustainable Agricultural Project Farm, implement and educate the student body about the composting program, and help work the weekly Farmers Market.

Future Plans: Bins will be made available to schools of Allendale and Grand Rapids to create a city-wide composting program.

Budget

Start-up costs: roughly estimated $100,000

Buying bins in bulk for the entire university along with graduation cords for the upcoming senior class.

Yearly Costs: $50,000

Bins will be bought each summer for the upcoming freshman class with bulk left for transferring students or bin damages along with graduation cords for the upcoming graduating class.
To offset the cost of buying new bins Seniors who give their bins back to the university will be given green graduation cords representing their efforts to lower their carbon footprint

How to lower the cost: