The thought has crossed all our minds at one point or another, whether while chowing down on a Trillium cheeseburger or grabbing chopsticks for our sushi in the Ivy Room. “Who’s that weirdo standing next to the garbage can?” Well that kid’s not a weirdo. It’s me. And that’s no garbage can; it’s a compost bin. For the past year I’ve been working with Cornell Dining on sustainability initiatives such as composting and purchasing local food. We’ve made a lot of progress so far, but if we really want to reduce our environmental impact, it’s going to take a little extra effort from the students.

You’d be surprised how many Cornell students don’t know what compost is. Composting is the process of breaking down organic matter into a nutrient-rich soil substance called — you guessed it — compost.

Aerobic bacteria and other microorganisms help the decomposition. Traditional landfills lack the necessary oxygen that the bacteria need, so organic wastes take much longer to break down. At Cornell, Farm Services composts huge amounts of manure and greenhouse wastes in a large-scale composting near the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ agriculture fields. They use the compost as a natural fertilizer in their farms and campus gardens.

I know what you’re thinking —“But I’m not in the Ag school, what does this have to do with me?” Farm Services also collects food waste from nearly every dining hall on campus. Dining’s compost falls into two categories: pre-consumer and post-consumer compost. Pre-consumer compost is all the biodegradable waste produced by dining chefs and staff when preparing food, like an onion peel or broccoli stem. Post-consumer compost is your waste — the food scraps and napkins you leave on your plate after you’re finished eating.

In the all-you-care-to-eat dining halls, like Robert Purcell, North Star Risley, Okenshields and the West Campus houses, composting your post-consumer waste is easy because it’s done for you! Dining staff put all food waste and napkins from your trays into the compost instead of the trash. But this doesn’t give you an excuse to waste food. This has been happening for nearly 10 years with over 350 tons of compost being diverted from the landfill annually.

Composting in grab-and-go dining halls is where we need your help. Trillium, the Ivy Room, Moosewood at Anabel in Anabel Taylor Hall and Manndible Café in Mann Library all have post-consumer composting. It’s a little bit trickier here because the consumer (that’s you) has to separate their compost from their trash and recycling. This doesn’t always happen. A lot of plastic trash ends up in the compost. Because it isn’t feasible to have someone poking through your leftover spaghetti to pick out that plastic fork you dropped in with it, many compost bins are sent out with trash. The dining staff gives a quick look through every bag of compost, and if they see any piece of plastic or metal, they have to trash it.

So far, things haven’t been good. Only about one out of every three bins of compost at Trillium is taken by Farm Services to be composted, the rest is sent to the landfill. This is where you can help. Make sure to separate all your compostable waste from your trash and recycling. Don’t know what can be composted? It’s easier to think about what can’t be composted. Anything plastic, metal or Styrofoam needs to be put in the trash. This includes plastic forks, spoons, and knives, plastic straws, plastic cup lids, plastic salad, sushi and other to-go containers as well as plastic wrap, aluminum foil and ketchup and soy sauce packets. Plastic and glass bottles and newspapers should go in the recycling bin.

That leaves all food scraps (even meat and dairy), paper cups, napkins, Pepsi cups (even with the wax coating), milk cartons and chopsticks for the compost bin. Can’t remember all that? Look for the signs above the compost bin. And if you’re still having trouble, it’s better to use the trash than risk contaminating the compost. Even just one plastic straw in the compost bin ruins everyone else’s effort.

Cornell Dining is experimenting with new ways to make it easier for consumers to compost. At the new Moosewood at Anabel Taylor and Manndible Café, compostable utensils and straws, made out of potato starch instead of the traditional petroleum based plastic are available. Instead of the traditional petroleum based plastic, these are made from corn or potato starch. Cornell Dining has made huge efforts to do their part to help make our campus more sustainable. So please don’t forget to do yours and compost!

Stephen Zelno ’09 is the Student Sustainability Coordinator for Cornell Dining. He can be contacted at sz58@cornell.edu. Guest Room appears periodically.