The BRGG Composting 101 Education Campaign
Hello All,
Starting Monday, February 9, we will be starting our Composting 101 Education Campaign at Mattin's Cafe in Duffield Hall from 10:30 am to 1:00 PM. At our table, you'll be able to learn more about post-consumer composting and what exactly should be composted, recycled, or thrown away. Also, you'll get a cool "I composted today" sticker!
Here's a quick catch-up for you all:
What is composting?
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, composting is defined as a natural process that combines organic wastes (e.g., yard trimmings, food wastes, manures) to create a soil amendment that helps plants grow. With the aid of high temperatures, the materials are broken down to create the soil. Because food waste is a significant percentage of all waste in the United States, the action to compost is a sustainable step forward in reducing waste and in turn giving back to the environment.
Which Cornell Dining locations do post-consumer composting?
At Cornell Dining, we do back-of-house (in the kitchen) composting at all our Dining Hall (all-you can-eat) locations. We are currently moving towards post-consumer composting as well for the our retail locations.
Currently we are composting in the front-of-house at:
- Ivy Room (Willard Straight Hall)
- Mattin's Cafe (Duffield Hall)
- Moosewood at Anabel Taylor (Anabel Taylor Hall)
- Synapsis Cafe (Weill Hall)
- Trillium Cafe (Kennedy Hall)
- Martha's Cafe (Martha Van Rensselaer Hall)
What should be composted?
- All food scraps
- Napkins
- Cartons
- PLA containers and utensils
- PLA stands for polylactic acid and is produced from corn
- Most Cornell Dining locations have switched over to PLA containers for its "FreshTake" products
- The PLA container is light brown (vs. the black plastic container) and can be completely composted (even the sticker is made from corn!)
- Paper
What should be recycled?
- Plastic bottles
- Glass bottles
- Aluminum cans
What should be thrown away into the trash?
- Plastic material (i.e. straws, wrappers, utensils)
- Metal
- Anything that cannot be recycled or composted
Thanks to SNRC, the Sustainability Hub, and the Master Composters for helping us with our campaign!
Stay green,
Jaimee Estreller
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1 comments:
There are a lot of problems with PLA - If we made all of the plastic disposable items used in the world every year out of PLA, it would take one hundred million tons of corn to make it. That would lead to mass starvation in the third world, as that represents at least 10% of the world's grain supply. It also takes a huge amount of diesel to grow, fertilize, ship, and process this corn, and as a practical matter, it is also not recyclable-In fact, the recyclers are trying to get PLA banned because it gets mistaken for PET, and ruins their PET batches. Restaurant owners and merchants find it annoying that PLA becomes gummy in water, gives water stored in it an odd taste, softens at soup temperatures, and has a short shelf life. And no, PLA can't be composted at home-it takes the elevated temperatures of a commercial composter to compost PLA. The alternative? Recyclable biodegradable plastics-Plastics made out of an otherwise useless industrial byproduct, naphtha. See http://biogreenproducts.biz for full information. -Tim Dunn
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