Tufts Recycles! to bring composting to all on-campus apartments

Tufts Recycles! will launch a new initiative to bring composting to all on-campus apartments at a composting education event this Friday at the Mayer Campus Center.

The event, which will be held in collaboration with the Tufts Sustainability Collective, will take place from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 112 of the center, according to Savannah Christiansen, a Tufts Recycles! intern and special interest housing supervisor for Tufts Eco-Reps.

“Tufts Recycles! and the Tufts Sustainability Collective are collaborating to have a compost education event...to talk about compost to people," Christiansen, a senior, said. "[The event will cover] how to keep [compost containers] clean and how to maintain [them], and that will include the kickstart to the on-campus apartment composting [effects]."

Christiansen said the push for composting at on-campus apartments such as Hillsides Apartments, Latin Way Dormitory and Sophia Gordon Hall this semester will expand existing composting spots in on-campus housing, which currently include Carmichael Hall, Haskell Hall, Houston Hall, Hodgdon Hall, Metcalf Hall, Miller Hall, South Hall, Wilson House and Wren Hall.

“Right now, the Eco-Reps maintain compost bins for all the dorms, and what we were thinking is that it makes more sense to have compost bins in places where there are kitchens, so our hope is that we get bins in apartments like in Latin Way, Sophia Gordon and...Hillsides," she said.

Christiansen explained that the benefit of having composting at these new sites will be a decrease in campus food waste, since fewer kitchen food scraps will end up in landfills as waste.

According toLiora Silkes, another Tufts Recycles! intern, the Tufts dining halls compost all food waste, but many upperclassmen are creating separate food waste of their own.

"A lot of upperclassmen aren’t eating in the dining halls as much," Silkes, a first-year, said. "They have their own kitchen right there, so they’re creating a lot of food waste. If you’re not eating in the dining halls, your food [probably] isn’t getting composted, so we’re trying to step in and get more of that composted."

Silkes explained how Tufts Recycles! has reached out to students currently living in on-campus apartments to gauge their interest in the new composting initiative.

“We’re going to give everyone who’s interested a little container to put their compost in," she said. "We’ll teach them everything they need to know, and they’ll be able to collect it on their own and then dump it outside in composting bins nearby all three of the apartments.”

Silkes explained that anyone can use the composting sites around campus, even if they didn't sign up to have their own compost bin.

“The bins are there, anyone can dump compost if you see the yellow bins around," she said. "Or if you wanted to start your own compost in your room, you can dump it in [the campus bins] and it will get picked up."

In addition to composting, Tufts Recycles! is also in charge of maintaining and enhancing the recycling system on campus, and also organizing collections of old battery and ink cartridges, according to Silkes. The group also does outreach to help events on campus become zero-waste events, she said.

Christiansen said another goal that Tufts Recycles! has for the semester is to start up their website and maintain a social media presence. She said she hopes people will check the group's website and ask them any questions they may have about recycling and composting.

Silkes said Tufts Recycles! hopes their Friday launch event will garner more support for their composting initiative by making people more knowledgeable and excited about composting, and ready to implement it in their apartments.

“Everyone should compost,” Silkes said. “It’s great and it’s easy.”