Smith’s Composting Frustration

This year, the realities of composting at Smith frustrated students and workers alike. Contamination, confusing bins and massive amounts of waste plague people on every level of this process.

Students seem to have varying levels of understanding about what can and cannot be composted. “I assume that the plastic containers that are in the not-quite clear wrappers are compostable and that napkins are compostable, and then the containers I never know. And the pizza ones are definitely not. At least I don’t think they are,” said Clarissa Po ’22, when asked about her composting knowledge. 

Alex Kiernan ’25 felt similarly to Po but said that the signs above the trash cans in the Campus Center and Compass Café are helpful. “I guess most of my knowledge comes from the signs on the trash cans,” she said. Abbie Ellis ‘24 agreed but added, “All the containers that we have say whether it’s compostable or not, though, so I usually just read that.” Po agreed that the symbols on the containers are helpful, saying, “When they have the green symbol or logo, I’m like, ‘okay, this is compostable.’”

However, while locations like the Campus Center and Compass Café serve food in containers with the compost symbol and display composting guidelines above their trash cans, the dining halls lack both of these helpful tools for students.

 “I know what can be composted, I just don’t know where to put it. I think the barrels in the dining halls are confusing,” said Ellis. She added, “That’s where I feel like we need to compost the most. But that’s where it’s the most unclear.” 

Kiernan and Po expressed similar confusion over the dining hall’s compost and trash bins. “[The bins] are mostly just trash or unlabelled, so I assume they’re trash,” Kiernan said. Po had her own take: “I assume if it has a green wrapper, that’s compost. And if it doesn’t, I guess it’s trash. But then I think some people think the opposite. It’s just very confusing.”

The size of the trash, recycling and compost bins in the Campus Center and Compass Café were also a concern for students. “They’re not sufficient for the amount of garbage people leave in there. Either they need to be emptied more regularly or we need bigger bins,” said Kiernan. 

“If the compost one is all filled up because we have the tiniest trash cans, then I’ll put it in the landfill one, because I can’t just leave it out. They overflow and get so gross. I don’t know why they’re so small,” Ellis complained. 

With these complications, composting can be a challenge for students with the best intentions. “I want to be able to [compost correctly], and I think it’s so annoying that we can’t,” said Ellis. Solutions that could be helpful, she said, include better organization and color-coded buckets. 

Given all of the confusion in the dining halls about which bins are for compost and which are for trash, it’s not surprising that staff in the dining halls often see trash in the compost bin. Tina Atkinson and Terry Corrigan, who both work under Cook-Dining Services, see this contamination in the Chapin dining hall. 

“A lot of times when we are composting in the morning, we find a lot of items that are not compostable,” said Atkinson.

Corrigan added, “Like plastic cups and half full coffees, straws. So that bucket can’t be composted because it’s mixed with stuff.”.

When asked if a contaminated compost pile could be salvaged, Atkinson responded, “No, because we’d have to dig through the whole trash bucket and pick it all out.”

Atkinson and Corrigan blame the problem on a mixture of laziness on the students’ end and disorganization in the set up. Reflecting on students returning Ozzis to Chapin, Atkinson said, “They’re not opening them and dumping them in the trash, they’re just throwing the whole thing into the compost bin.”

Corrigan remarked, “All it takes is a second for them to put those items in the trash.” 

The two agreed that a lot of students seemed to do their best to compost correctly. “All it takes is one or two people, though, [to contaminate the compost],” said Corrigan. 

Atkinson thought color coding the trash and compost bins could help students tell the difference. “I think if it was across the board, like every house on campus had the same system, it would be a lot easier for you guys to know, ‘oh, orange, blue, red, whatever.’ But right now it’s just big barrels of trash with bags in them, and you’re supposed to know what goes where,” she said. She also thought that the signage in Chapin could be more clear, saying that she doesn’t think students take the time to read what might be too small or too confusing instructions.

Smith produces an overwhelming amount of food waste — about 20 tons in March alone, according to John Labrie, Interim Manager of Facilities Grounds Operations, who attributes the waste to the lack of centralized dining on campus.

Facilities Management oversees the collection of compost all over campus, as well as the transport of the compost off-campus. Labrie described how, currently, Facilities Management takes Smith’s compost to 360 Recycling in Westfield. There, 360 Recycling turns the compost into fertilizer. 

Labrie also often sees contaminated compost. “But I’ll tell you,” he said, “my guys, they’re really good. They’ll actually dump it at 360 [Recycling] and pick out all the stuff that’s not compostable. And that’s really not their job, you know, but they feel as though they should do it.” 

Labrie is working to set up a new way to use Smith’s compost sustainably. “We’re in the middle of a big change — I’m shooting to get a 30 yard compost compactor. We’re working with this company called Vanguard [Renewables], and they take the food waste and actually turn it into natural gas.”

The compost compactor would be a centralized storage container on campus for compost. Vanguard Renewables would come and pick up the compactor, take it to Vermont, turn the compost into natural gas, and bring a new compactor back to Smith. The natural gas produced would be piped into a pipeline in Vermont and used for energy, Labrie said. 

This new process would also open up resources in Facilities Management: “We’ll save three trips to Westfield every week, so we’re saving fuel and manpower where we can do something else on campus,” said Labrie. He hopes to have this new partnership with Vanguard Renewables in place by the start of the fall semester.

Workers and students alike agree that the composting process at Smith is not as clear as it should be, although the compost is being used effectively once it leaves campus. Increased effort by students could reduce the amount of contaminated compost, and labeled, larger trash and compost bins could aid them.