Dining halls incorporated into composting program

Gary Tennant, left, Office of Farm Services manager, and Daniel M. Winch, compost project manager, test the compost's temperature at the compost project site off Stevenson Road April 29. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

By Heather Warren

Joining in a unique partnership with Cornell's Waste Management Institute and University Dining Services, Cornell's Office of Farm Services has begun to incorporate food scraps into an already successful composting program.

Since 1992, Farm Services has been composting 3,450 tons of animal bedding, greenhouse material and other agricultural waste at its compost site off Stevenson Road. With the addition of food scraps, Daniel M. Winch, compost project manager, estimates a total of 4,151 tons of material will be composted annually.

After a test run in December 1997, the food scraps project now composts nearly 6,000 pounds of food waste per week from the Purcell, Noyes and Trillium dining facilities. Recently, Willard Straight Hall dining was added to the list.

Campus Life's Dining and Retail Services pays Farm Services the same rate per ton to collect and compost food scraps as it would pay to have the food scraps sent to a landfill.

Both Cornell staff and students have played an integral role in the program's success. Since the beginning of the Spring semester, students have been asked to separate milk cartons and other paper products from their food waste when leaving the dining halls. Dining staff trained in pre- and post-consumer waste collection are responsible for operating a pulper that grinds and de-waters the scraps. The necessary changes in their daily routine have been well received. Winch says that in every case, at least one person from each dining location with a strong interest took the lead in organizing and educating others.

"The sucess of this project is due to the dedication by both the cafeteria line staff and the Farm Services field assistants," Winch said.

Edward Witko, general manager of Dining Services and one of the behind-the-scenes key players in the project, agrees. "Overall, the project has been very gratifying," he said.

The scraps, collected daily, are taken to the Farm Services complex for mixing with bedding material from the Equestrian Center and from some of the Veterinary College facilities.

The mixture is stored in the mixer overnight and then transported to the compost site, where the scraps are composted in a separate, dedicated pile, or windrow. The windrows are turned at least once per week to break the fly cycle and keep the composting pile aerated. To date, there have been no problems with digging or scavenging by wildlife and no complaints from nearby Varna residents, officials say.

All runoff from the compost pad flows directly into an on-site retention pond. The compost pad is protected from receiving rainwater runoff from adjacent fields by a berm. The finished compost is used to build the soil structure of agricultural fields for the production of animal feed or on non-food production plots, and all runoff from the retention ponds is used to irrigate adjacent fields.

Jean Bonhotal, extension associate at the Cornell Waste Management Institute, credits Farm Services Manager Gary Tennant for the success of the large-scale composting program. Tennant, Bonhotal says, has a feel for what works when it comes to composting, ensuring a clean, dry operation.

In the future, Winch plans a tour for the Town of Ithaca Planning Board and other appropriate citizen and government members of the local community. He also hopes to include the dining facilities at Balch and Risley in the composting of food scraps.

To accommodate this, an expansion of the composting site and an increase in the runoff pond capacity is expected. In addition, Winch and the rest of the project's team would like to join forces with the Waste Management Institute and other organizations to become an educational and demonstration site for both animal and food waste composting programs, as well as a farming alternative program.

Less than 2 percent of New York state colleges are engaged in similar, start-to-finish composting programs, Bonhotal says. The project, she says, places Cornell in a strong position to become an educational leader in the composting process.