The biggest in-vessel compost bin at Ohio university is about to double in size.
Ohio University currently collects food waste generated by Baker University Center and Shively Dining Hall to fill its 2-ton compost bin. A new expanded 4-ton bin will allow OU to collect food waste from Baker as well as all of the dining halls.
“We are looking to capture 100 percent (of OU’s food waste),” said Erin Sykes, interim sustainability coordinator.
The new bin, which costs nearly $1.5 million, can later be expanded to process as much as 10 tons of waste a day. OU recently received about $1.1 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to purchase the bin. The remaining $403,786 will come from the Facilities Management budget.
“I am not really sure where Harry (Wyatt, associate vice president for Facilities) is collecting that money from,” said Steve Mack, director of Facilities Management.
Currently, most of the food collected is preparation and pre-consumer waste, Mack said.
“The only thing we can’t really handle is liquid waste,” he said, adding that many of the foods, such as lettuce, already have such a high water content that must be filtered out into the sewer system.
After 14 days of processing, the waste must cure for 90 days, according to OU’s website. The compost is then used to fertilize athletic fields and gardens used by plant biology students.
OU decided to expand the bin to help meet the President’s Climate Commitment, a pledge that President Roderick McDavis signed in March 2007 to reduce the university’s greenhouse emissions.
“It’s the right thing to do for the environment, for our ecological footprint,” Sykes said.
The bin will decrease the amount of waste OU sends to its landfill by 25 percent and reduce greenhouse gas emission by about 1,200 metric tons, which is equivalent to the amount of energy used by 108 homes each year, according to OU’s website.
The compost building also includes rainwater collection bins, a 31.1-kilowatt solar array that powers the facility and a 1.4-gallon solar thermal water heating system that warms rainwater that is then used to clean the compost bin.
cb119506@ohiou.edu
@ThePostCampus
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