Sustainability Applications- Composting

The End of the Process becomes the Beginning

Michael Thompson, a graduate of Oberlin and life-long resident of Oberlin is the Farm Steward for the Jones Farm. He takes care of livestock and also assists with the collection and distribution of food waste gathered from dining halls at Oberlin College.

Through the support of the Ohio EPA, the NAC worked with Oberlin College to pilot a food waste collection system in preparation for the Growing Power workshop. The original intent was to collect for three weeks. It worked so well that we continued picking-up food waste throughout the year.

We describe the composting program as an example of “full-circle learning”. Students from the college volunteer and work at the farm harvesting the very produce that they will see on their dinner plates. The food waste is then returned to the farm to become soil and nutrients for next year’s crops. In that sense, the end of the food production process becomes the beginning of next year’s growth and the cycle continues to renew itself. A large percentage of food waste ends up in land-fills. The nutrients and organic matter in the waste stream is wasted and so too is an opportunity to give back to nature what was taken.  Ohio EPA funding will support development of a larger-scale composting system that can absorb all of the food waste from Oberlin College and other local sources of food.