Going Green @ Haverford

Composting!!  Specifically, food waste composting.

Over the last few years nothing has generated more discussion in Committee for Environmental Responsibility (CER) meetings than how to dispose of our food waste.

Let me give you a brief history…

In 2008 CER hired a consultant, Niche Recycling, to do a waste audit to determine how much we were really sending to the landfill. Turns out quite a bit. Food waste alone was running over 4,500 lbs. That’s almost two tons folks!!

To help offset this, CER agreed to compost pre-consumer waste. For 18 months,  three times a week, the front end loader picked up pre-consumer waste and composted it.

During this time, CER was working with Niche Recycling to bring in-vessel composting to campus. In-vessel composting officially defined is:  ”The aerobic decomposition of shredded and mixed organic waste within an enclosed container, where the control systems for material degradation are fully automated”. Sound expensive?? Yup!

CER was not deterred by this fact, we figured where there’s a will, there’s a way. Vendors were brought in to look at the dining center to find out what was feasible. Turns out that the dining center is  ”old” and would not support a lot of the technology.

So, where are we now?

A year or so ago we went trayless. Studies suggest that going trayless reduces food waste up to 30%. It’s always better to reduce before you recycle.

And, we’re still tracking. Better Together, a Quaker Interfaith Group, collected food waste as part of an awareness initiative. Their findings were astounding. Over 600 lbs per day!

The latest endeavor brings Bryn Mawr College into the mix. Because of consumers demanding greener alternatives to landfills, waste companies are starting to offer programs where they will pick up food waste and take it to composting facilities. On March 19th, 2012 Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges will be working with Republic Waste Services on another trial to see how the two colleges can work together to help solve this issue.

Stay tuned.

Claudia

Composting food waste at Haverford has been a hot topic for the last few years. The Dining Center, our biggest waste producer, throws out about a 1,000 lbs of food a day! Wow!!  Considering we’re only 1100 students, that’s significant. Students are really getting in on the action about bringing awareness about food waste. Better Together, a new interfaith social justice club that is organizing a year-long direct action campaign that seeks to reduce food, water and electronic waste at Haverford, recently weighed the post-consumer waste from the DC. They figured that each student wasted about 140z per person. This is all post-consumer, we haven’t even started talking about pre-consumer… Hopefully in the next couple years we’ll be able to do in-vessel composting at the DC.

ComposT-Twin at the Haverford College Apartments

Students in the Haverford College Apartments (HCA), have also been hot on the composting topic. With the installation of the student vegetable garden and adding fruit production next year, the need for soil amendment is growing (pun intended). We’ve had slightly better success here. Over the last few years we have been adding composters for students to recycle their kitchen and garden waste. We just added a fourth Mantis ComposT-Twin, which work great for us as they hold a lot of material (25 cubic feet). They also have a dual chamber which allows students to fill one side while the other side “cooks.”

Faculty have also gotten the composting bug. Taking a ride around campus the other day I counted 4 composting containers outside faculty housing. I’ve also gotten requests for us to supply containers which, of course,  I oblige in any way I can. We recently added two Compost Wizards behind a faculty apartment house, with the hope that we can get more faculty in the composting habit.

While not food waste, I did want to mention Grounds and Arboretum. Recently I had to calculate how much “yard waste” we compost for our Green House Gas emissions report. Haverford recycles between 95-98% of its green waste. That breaks down to 4,500 cubic feet of woodchips, 31,500 cubic feet of leaves and 21,600 cubic feet of general garden waste. Woodchips are aged and used for mulch while the leaves and green material are composted down and used on the community gardens.

While I know I’m getting long winded here I did want to mention how tough it is to educate people, especially on a large scale, on the proper way to compost. Teaching students and faculty that you can’t fill the container all the way up, and that you have to add a carbon source can sometimes be draining. On the flip side however, CER student Siena M. does a great job on spreading the word. Kudos to Siena.

Next step, Vermicomposting

vermicomposting

In the garden

Haverford College’s Sustainability Website “Greening Haverford”  is up and running.

Anything you ever wanted to know about Sustainability at Haverford is posted on the new site. Questions about recycling?? It’s there!  How about energy conservation or local food? We have information and links to relevant sites.

“Ask the Green Squirrel” will answer any obscure (and not so obscure) questions you may have and the suggestion box is awaiting any ideas.

Take a look, we think you’ll like it.

www.haverford.edu/greening_haverford/

CPGC Cafe

On Wednesday April 14^th the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, in partnership with the Committee for Environmental Responsibility, cordially invited the entire College community to attend a luncheon to celebrate the kick-off of the “Going Greener” campaign!

CPGC is walking the walk when it comes to going greener. The café is using corn based flatware that can be composted. New containers have been clearly labeled for composting, recycling and trash. Food scraps are collected and delivered to the dining center for composting.

Below is the menu for the “Local Food” luncheon prepared by the dining center.
o    Potato Leek Soup (Local Potatoes and Leeks)
o    Turkey Sandwiches (Local Turkey)
o    Grilled Portabella and Romaine Sandwiches (Grilled Portabella Sandwiches-Portabella Mushrooms and Romaine);
o    Egg Salad Sandwiches (Local Eggs)
o    Spinach Salad with Apples (Local Spinach and Local Fuji Apples)
o    Artichoke Salad (Jerusalem artichokes, carrots turnips, parsnips )

And they’re not done yet. Director, Parker Snowe and his staff are looking into carbon offsets for their students who travel abroad this summer. Stay tuned…

Check out the full story
www.haverford.edu/news/stories/37431/10

The Committee for Environmental Responsibility (CER) had a very productive fall semester. I’d like to share some of the highlights.
Desiderata for new Tritton Dorm. In anticipation of the new dorm CER proposed the following features.

• Ground Source heat pump HVAC system
• Integrated Smart Metering
• Dual flush toilets to help conserve water
• Green Roof
• Grey water reuse
• Sustainable landscaping
• Covered bicycle parking
• Incorporating recycling work flow into plan

Green Plan for managing and reducing waste on campus. With assistance from an outside consultant, CER devised a plan that would eventually shift the campus-wide waste management and recycling practices toward more sustainable methods.

• Provide for on-site composting of Dining Hall food waste.
• Develop a plan to double Haverford College’s recycling rate and implement programs that would allow Haverford to materially benefit from the increase in recoverables.
• Revise waste collection practices to reduce amount and frequency of trash removal from campus.

Preliminary approval has been given to purchase a Vegawatt Power System which turns waste vegetable oil from food service operations into electricity with a 5kW generator.

Student Farm/Garden proposal. Students got approval to expand the current student garden at HCA. Historically, farming has been a part of Haverford College and CER students would like to resurrect this tradition.

CPGC: Walking the Walk. CER has joined with the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC) to help them “Go Green”.

• CPGC has agreed to higher costs for using sustainable products for their cafe events.
• Educating the college community on recycling.
• Composting food scraps from the cafe.
• Buying “Green” office products.
• Buying offsets for business travel and visiting speakers.

Recycling.

• Encouraging , libraries, administrative departmentsto purchase recycled  paper for all uses.
• Educating that recycling guidelines have changed. We can now recycle plastics 1-7.
• Recyclemania kicks off March 2010.

Tucked away on Featherbed Lane, a little stone house built circa 1935 by  Mathematics Professor Cletus Oakley, houses one of Haverford’s many hidden garden treasures. Five years ago Richard Ball took over the reins when Professor Lyle Roelof moved on to Colgate University and he has waged war on invasive plant species ever since.  Gout weed, Lesser celandine and Norway maple don’t stand a chance when faced with Richard’s boundless energy. He won’t admit how many hours he spends in the garden but looking at what he’s accomplished over the last several years, it’s quite a lot.

While Richard loves most plants he considers himself a tree man.  Scattered around his wooded garden are, at last count, 25 small trees that he has planted. Whether he bought them from the Forest Farm nursery catalog, a local native plant sale, or plucked them out of cracks in the sidewalk in Avalon, each plant is lovingly labeled the year it was planted and fenced off. Not just for protecting it from deer, but his own feet as he moves through the garden.

Chemical free, Richard has some unique ways of dealing with invasive species. Lesser celandine over the last decade has taken over our local woodlands, choking out the native flora. Richard has hand dug the bulbs, wheelbarrowed them over to a remote part of the property, and has covered the bulbs with a tarp. He’s hoping, one day, to be able to use the soil again. Another technique is picking up discarded boxes from the Dining Center and laying them over the plants he wants to eradicate and covering them with compost or wood chips. Previously, he had been using old carpet to smother the plants, but felt the cardboard boxes were a more sustainable approach as they can be tilled in once they break down.

Moving through the Dahlias, Crocosmia and Daylilies you come upon a grove with stone picnic benches built by Oakley, the home’s original owner. Shaded by evergreens, the tables and benches are covered with rocks.  When asked about them Richard replied, “They just grow by themselves.” What to do with them? “My plan is to make a plan,” he replied.

His love for the garden is unmistakable. As horticulturists, the Arboretum crews have often walked through his garden and appreciated his work. Richard commented that this is the first year he feels that he’s seeing results that even the lay person can appreciate.  So next time you bump into Richard on campus, ask him about his garden, he’ll be happy to fill you in.

Yum!!

Finally there is some action in the garden. We’ve been picking pounds of green beans and the tomatoes are just starting to ripen. Potatoes have been ready for awhile now and we’ve been enjoying lots of potato salad and french fries. We’re still harvesting beets and the green peppers are almost ready.

We’ve been working the soil continually adding compost collected from the dining center, it’s really making a difference.

Many thanks to my summer volunteers who have been watering and weeding.

Have a great summer!

This spring, Haverford College Dining Services along with the Committee on Environmental Responsibility(CER) started composting pre-consumer food waste. Since its inception in March of this year we’ve composted almost 10,000 lbs of melon rinds, potato peels and lettuce leaves etc. In turn the composted material is being used in the student garden located at the Haverford College Apartments (HCA) and in the community gardens located below Facilities Management. CER is currently working on in-container composting system where both pre and post consumer waste is composted.

The Tommy T Challenges were an annual challenge to the Haverford Community to help the environment and ran for three academic years, 2004-2005, 2005-2006, and 2006-2007.

2004-2005 Challenge: “Do it in the dark.”/”It turns me on when you turn me off.” Purpose: To conserve electricity.

2005-2006 Challenge: “Do it front and back.”/”It turns me on when you turn me over.” Purpose: To reduce the amount of paper used on campus.

2006-2007 Challenge: “Do it in the dirt.”/”It turns me on when you break it down.” Purpose: To encourage composting of food scraps.