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The fish and wildlife department cares about natural resources. We try to model that for students in other departments that come into Nash Hall. For the last two years we have had a worm composting bin in our kitchen! We compost all of our lunch scraps, leftovers from seminars, and the crumbs from coffee club on Fridays! We've also placed recycling bins in every conceivable group space you can think of on the first and second floors of Nash Hall! We even added a new leadership position to the fish and wildlife club leadership team this year: Sustainability coordinator. April Lindeman, alumna, Fisheries & Wildlife
I compost all kitchen scraps (egg shells, coffee grounds and filters, veggies, fruits, etc), garden clippings and weeds, and will soon be composting chicken manure. I use a worm bin near the house and a big open pile further from the house. Michaela Hammer, senior, Liberal Studies
I compost all food wastes except for meat and dairy. I use the big black spaceship composter that Allied Waste gives out, transfer it to my revolving composter, and eventually into large wooden boxes for storage. I also compost all garden "waste." Jane Harrison, PhD student, Agricultural and Resource Economics
I try to compost most of the organic waste (non-human) that we develop on our in-town lot. That includes yard and garden debris, food waste, pet waste, and some types of paper. The method I use depends very much on what I'm composting.
Food waste: always hot composting, usually within a yard debris matrix. Shredded office paper makes a great foil for composting food waste, and reduces the risk of identity theft. I find myself composting kitchen paper waste, too - greasy paper towels, paper napkins. If I clean something with ammonia and a paper towel, I certainly make a point of composting that for its nitrogen content.
I try to mix as much grass clippings in with the food waste as I can get my hands on, since it has such a high soluble sugar content. This provides quick and easy food for decomposer bacteria, and promotes rapid heating.
I have found creative ways to store autumn leaves in the landscape. They either improve the soil where they are, or are used in the food waste composting operation, or are used elsewhere as they become leaf mold.
For about the past 6 months, I've been experimenting with vermicomposting dog poop, using shredded office paper as bedding for the worms. I'm using a partially buried 2 gallon covered bucket with holes drilled in the bottom for drainage. I've been surprised to learn that this is much too small a volume for the output of a 10 pound poodle.
I have a whole category of "worst weeds" that I process in Gedye backyard methane digesters. These are the best-ever get-rid-of machines, converting about 95% of what's put in them into water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane gas. Odorless. Perfect for equisetum, dandelions in bloom, turkey carcasses, whole pumpkins, grape hyacinth bulbs, dead things from the street and yard. Oh, and perfect for households with Great Danes. ;-)
Finally, there's nothing like stacking stuff up in some out of the way corner, and letting it sit. Sod. Branches. Fern fronds. You just have to be thoughtful about the micro-local viewshed and airshed - yours and the neighbors'. An abandoned firewood pile, over about 15 years' time, yielded a huge quantity of well-rotten bark and woody materials - perfect for mixing with potting soil. Linda Brewer, Senior Faculty Research AssistantSince we live in an apartment, my husband and I compost all our vegetable food scraps using worm composting (vermicomposting). The worms live in a nice, big worm bin located in our second bathroom (so they don't get too cold during the winter). Uta Hussong, Science Librarian
Almost all vegetable matter is composted at our house. We have a cute metal can with lid (a gift from our children) sitting on the counter and when its full, we dump it in a plastic barrel (with holes in the sides and no bottom) near the garden. Each year we move the barrel and the bottom half is always nice compost. We add grass and leaves and water it in the summer. We do not put any meat scraps in the compost as it attracts raccoons. Although, I did see our resident raccoon wandering over to the compost the other night to check it out "just in case". Ann Kinkley, Associate editor, Oregon Stater Magazine
I recycle all my organic kitchen waste in my back yard. My vegetable garden refuse goes directly back into the garden. The ornamental landscape waste is the difficult part. Most of the woody waste goes into the yard debris bucket and the vegetative parts go into the backyard compost bin where they slowly degrade. Teresa Sawyer, Electron Microscope Facility Manager
I compost all kitchen and garden waste. I have a small kitchen bucket that I take out to my compost bin in the back yard, supplied by the City garbage collectors. Large branches from pruning and weeds are taken to the yard debris cart. Deborah Hobbs, Senior Research Assistant
I compost all food scraps that I cut from the food I'm preparing (like carrot tops and onion skins), food that's spoiled or rotten (like mushy cherries and moldy bread), and left-over parts of food that I've just eaten (like corn cobs and apple cores, which need to be cut into smaller pieces for the compost). I collect all of that food in a plastic bin in my kitchen and when it's full, I take it outside, dump it in my compost bin, and cover it with a layer of grass clippings from my lawn; that way I get a good mixture of green and brown compost. Earlier this summer, I was able to use my compost in my first vegetable garden! My compost bin is called The Earth Machine and I got it for free by calling Allied Waste and requesting a compost bin when I first moved here. They dropped The Earth Machine off at my house with a home composting handbook and I've been composting ever since! Elizabeth Wyckoff, graduate student, Creative Writing
The kitchen scraps go from a small container on the counter to a larger pail outside the back door to the big black 'darth vader' tub in the back yard, which we obtained from Allied Waste. There, it reduces down to compost, which we remove and use in our gardens about once a year when we relocate the tub.
The yard waste gets piled up on a tarp in the back corner of the yard, where it dries up and reduces in size. Since we only have will-call trash service, we do not have a yard debris cart to use. So, we negotiate with a neighbor who often has empty space in their yard cart, to put the yard waste in there periodically. It then goes to the Allied Waste process recovery center and gets composted in the big hot piles. I hope the blackberries and morning glories get sufficiently killed so they won't crop back up somewhere else some day! Marge Stevens, Accountant
