Eckerd Compost Awareness

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"Starting off as a compost work-study student at Eckerd, I had no idea I would appreciate the process of composting the way I do. In fact, I held the common misconception that a lot of folks have about composting: that it is a smelly and difficult job. Composting, when done correctly, is not too complicated nor too smelly, but don’t get me wrong, it is definitely a demanding task."-Kylie Litaker


 According to RTS,  Americans waste nearly 40 million tons — or 30-40 percent of the entire US food supply a year.  This is a substantial amount of food waste and it would take systems changing to curb that large number.  RTS also states that “wasting food has irreversible environmental consequences: it wastes the water and energy it took to produce it and generates greenhouse gases — 11 percent of the world’s emissions—12 like methane, carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons, which contribute to global warming”. 


 Composting is a great option for reducing methane emissions,  and not to mention, it can be used to grow more food instead of using chemical fertilizers that contribute to environmental degradation.  Other benefits of composting include: reducing the amount of landfill trash, returning nutrients to the soil, reduces soil and plant disease, helps control erosion, and increases water retention.  Additionally, composting is actually a lot of fun and brings together the community through nutritious soil making.  



Similar to climate change, there are a lot of people who do not understand the science behind composting.  It’s simple:  find an area outdoors to set up a pile, collect your food scraps, dump food scraps into the pile, and then use mulch or other brown materials to generously cover the food waste. After around 3  months and pile maintenance such as turning the pile and watering it, the compost should be finished.  Ensuring that you have a lot of mulch covering the food waste, is what deters rodents or other pests from sneaking into your piles.  Composting is something that everyone can do.   Who knows?  You might even be like me and become a composting fanatic!



In our project, we decided to create composting awareness amongst the student body on campus. To do this we used the information and personal experience that Kylie had and tried to make composting seem more exciting. A tactic we used was through the influence of creating posters and an Instagram account to display composting and what you should and should not put in the compost. On the Instagram account, we posted photos and videos informing followers about composting. Abby created some colorful posters to bring out the fun and importance of composting. 



After the account went live, Janessa created a free-response submission board asking students to submit their experience

with composting, either at home or on campus.  Some of the responses are listed below.  A common complaint from the

responses was that students felt there are not enough compost bins.  Kylie reached out to the Director of Sustainability at

Eckerd, Evan Bollier, asking about purchasing more bins to place around campus.  In the Fall of 2021, the compost program

will have more compost bins around campus for students, faculty, staff, and visitors to dump food waste. 

A few days later, we received a message from an Eckerd student who seemed interested in the composting program as well.

Hopefully, by having this account up and running, more students will become interested in composting.

 




In class, we had the opportunity to hear from Dan Xie, the political director of Student PIRGs. She explained to us the importance of social media and the power it has in planning campaigns on campus. We took that advice from Dan and ran with it. We decided to take the social media approach and spread the word to Eckerd students about the importance of composting on campus. We used her “backward planning” idea and put it to use throughout our journey. We set up an Instagram page and started branching out to as many students as possible. We asked them to share with us their views on composting and what they like and dislike about the composting process on our campus. We got an overwhelming amount of responses from our fellow students and we hope to see our efforts be put into action next year! We have learned how impactful social media can be in efforts of spreading the word and getting more people to join the cause and it proves to be an essential part of planning and executing campaigns not only on campus but in any community. 


Another connection from class that we made was through the Drawdown website. The website has helpful information about many solutions concerning the climate and actions we can do at home. On the site, there is a section referring to composting and how it benefits plants and soil as well. The information is very brief but also contains enough information to hold an impact on those reading it. “Rather than generating methane, the composting process converts organic material into stable soil carbon, while retaining water and nutrients of the original waste matter. The result is carbon sequestration as well as production of a valuable fertilizer,” (Hawken). We thought it would be important to try and capture the urgency for a more sustainable source of fertilizer by picking the composting project and find a way to get more students interested.


*Kylie made a documentary-style film about composting at Eckerd College titled The Journey of Compost if anyone is interested in watching*



Sources


https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/
https://drawdown.org/solutions/composting
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oRl72-MlznssUjPDFScBm07Y4_8Gw4sEg9Q8Pea8mwQ/edit#slide=id.p1



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