Housing, Dining, and Hospitality and Composting

Major Planet heard rumors about the recycling & composting in Housing & Dining areas. Here's the short answer:

Recycling is recycled. Trash that's in the Recycling bin is sorted out & thrown away. Want to know what's recyclable & what's trash? Click Here

The "Compost" bins are actually getting us ready to compost. There's no place in San Diego for us to compost our food right now, but we're working on some possibilities. So, the "Compost" bins are in, and when there is a local composting solution, we'll be ready to go.



Now, here's the long answer for those of you who want more details on how and why:

As mandated by UCOP Policy on Sustainable Practices, UC San Diego is scheduled to be a zero-waste university by 2020. Dining Services already practices single-stream recycling, all of which is recycled properly (not taken to the landfill). Our next goal is to implement a composting component on campus, a necessary step if we are to be truly "zero-waste" by 2020.

Composting diverts waste from landfills and reduces the production of certain greenhouse gases by facilitating aerobic rather than anaerobic decomposition. Furthermore, composting converts waste into a useful product that facilitates plant restoration, filters urban water runoff, reduces the need for chemical fertilizers, suppresses plant diseases, and acts as a natural herbicide.

In an effort to minimize the environmental impact of UC San Diego and to contribute to the campus' sustainability initiatives, Housing, Dining, & Hospitality has set up a campus-wide compost system. Inside each dining restaurant, HDH has added an extra bin especially for food scraps and napkins that will eventually be composted as a means of reducing the amount of food waste produced by the dining halls. Because it is a new project, HDH is using this time as a training process for students and faculty to train themselves in sorting what goods can go into the compost bins and will be disposing the compostable waste into the trash.

In addition to HDH's efforts, students and faculty on campus have formed an organization that composts all pre-consumer waste from the Sierra Summit dining hall. This effort helps reduce the waste produced by Sierra Summit, while educating and promoting the benefits of composting.

In the meantime, you can aid us in pushing composting in the dining halls by separating your leftover food scraps (not including meat and bones), coffee grounds, coffee stirrers, and all disposable cups, plates, napkins and flatware into the designated compost bin.