Composting 101: Increasing Student Engagement with Composting at Eckerd College




 About 30% of food gets wasted every year in the US & as a result, affects the livelihood of millions of Americans and the health of the environment. The massive amount of food wasted each year is unlike the number of people who struggle to gain access to food just to survive. Not to mention, large amounts of food waste have led to negative environmental impacts through poor waste management like landfills. Trash, plastic, and other harmful materials have a tendency to seep into the ground and contaminate local waterways. However, in contrast, composting breaks down organic nutrients from food waste and contributes back by preventing soil erosion, promoting plant growth, conserving water, and reducing waste. Thus, without a proper system like composting put into place, the degradation of our environmental and societal health will continue. With that being said, Durbin and I created an advocacy campaign with goals to help encourage Eckerd College students to compost and increase their engagement with composting. 

We originally wanted to do another project but due to time constraints, we decided to go with Jenn’s idea. We wanted to get Eckerd’s involvement with composting up because we both work with the farm and have had wonderful experiences there that we wanted to share with all study bodies. We made an outline of how we wanted to proceed and edited that idea as we went. We started by emailing the study body about our project and how each step was going to be conducted. We threw in a $25 cash reward and a second-place reward of $20 of our own money for whoever interacts with composting the most. We sent out a survey, and with the results, we received decided to figure out who was in charge of the composting bins. We contacted Evan Bollier who got us in touch with Farmer Jon. Farmer Jon met with us for about two hours about what is set in place currently and the need for more interaction from the school community.

The outcome was positive. We both were educated on the misinformation or lack of information being relied on by students about composting. If there were no time restraints we would have helped farmer Jon work create a video about the whole process of farm-to-table + back to the farm and help bridge the gap or lack of information. Outside of this project, we will be helping with this task. The major change we would make would be helping students sign up for designated farm work days, raise awareness of the RSL hours aspect, or even pay for helping the very thing that is helping us keep our mark of a green thumb.
Location: St. Petersburg, FL, USA

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