Dining Services will be closer to reaching their goal of zero waste this fall when Ohio University adds a composting machine to campus.

The $375,000 Wright Environmental Management’s In-Vessel Composting System, which can hold two tons of biodegradable waste, will be completed in mid-June. It will be delivered when the building to house it is constructed, said Mark Whitney, landscape planner and project manager for University Planning and Implementation.

Construction for the building at The Ridges, which will cost $736,413, will begin July 1, Whitney said.

“Eventually, with composting and recycling, we want to work toward zero waste in Dining Services,” said Edward Newman, Recycling and Refuse manager, adding that the project will start at Baker University Center and eventually expand.

After Baker University Center opened, Dining Services decided to use decomposable products because of a fear that students might take non-disposable china, and the department later expanded the idea into a composting project, Newman said.

OU then investigated manufacturers and different types of composting machines and purchased the machine in January, Whitney said.  

Most dining products in Baker Center have been biodegradable since shortly after Baker opened.  The goal is for all products eventually to be biodegradable, Newman said.

“We are constantly trying to find out how to reduce our waste,” Newman said.

OU is the first large university to use decomposable products and to create a composting project this big, Newman said.  

OU collects 5,000 to 6,000 tons of trash per year in about 110 dumpsters on campus. With the composting facility, OU expects to divert 2,000 to 2,500 tons of waste from the landfills to the machine, potentially reducing waste from Baker by at least half in the first year. OU already composts 300 to 400 tons of landscape waste per year, Newman said.

Recycling and Refuse will use two trucks to transport the compost materials from Baker to the machine, and expects to make at least two trips a day. Newman said the cost of gas will be less than transporting waste and the fees for using a landfill.

The compost will turn a liability into an asset for OU, Newman said.

“The most basic way (to handle waste) is to dig a hole and cover it up,” said Sonia Marcus, sustainability coordinator. “There is nothing sustainable in that. It continues to take up space and none of the material is being reused.”

OU also hopes eventually to be able to sell the composted material to local farmers, possibly in exchange for food, Newman said.

OU will register the facility with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and obtain a license that will cost between $300 and $1,200, depending the amount of waste, said Joe Goicochea, environmental specialist with the OEPA.

“We hope our biggest generator of waste will become our smallest generator of waste,” Newman said.