By Lawrence Holt, News Correspondent
At a large school like Northeastern where dining halls accommodate thousands of students each day, composting is an integral part of the effort to promote sustainability.
Compost, which must consist solely of organic materials, is used primarily on farms for soil-fertilization. At Rebecca’s Café, however, some members of Northeastern’s environmental club said, composting has stopped because students are unable to properly differentiate the materials and place them in proper bins.
The Husky Environmental Action Team (HEAT) has addressed the problem by creating specific signs showing what can and cannot be composted, as well as placing club members by the trash area to help students after their meals.
“We found out about this because every time a HEAT member or I would walk by the bins, we’d see trash in there. Then I noticed that the bin liners had been changed but the composting signs were still up, and it was all being thrown away instead of composted,” Jessica Feldish, the executive director of HEAT, said.
The liners used in the trash bins are different from the ones used in the compost bins, which are green and made of a compostable material.
“I asked the staff at Rebecca’s why this was happening, and they told me that because students were not differentiating their items correctly, the composting and recycling was too contaminated to be used,” Feldish, a senior environmental studies major, said. “So we thought that if students were having such a hard time doing this, we should help them figure out how to compost correctly.”
Now, during peak lunch hours from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., HEAT members can sometimes be found standing by the bins, ready to help their peers figure out which items go where. There are four receptacles: one for trash, one for compost, and two for separate types of recyclable materials.
“I think the disposal system is pretty straightforward here,” Alexander Birch, a 21-year-old biochemistry student, said of Rebecca’s. “Most of the time I’ll put everything where it’s supposed to, but if I’m in a hurry or if everything’s too mixed up then I’ll just trash it so I don’t ruin the recycling.”
Noah Pilchen, a HEAT member and volunteer at Rebecca’s, said some students seemed happy to get clarification on what to do with their trash.
“A lot of people would just dump all of their items in the trash bin or the compost bin without even looking at them,” Pilchen said. “When we asked if we could show them what to do, people usually responded well, especially when they realized it takes less than a minute of their time.”
Another member of HEAT said he sees few reasons why students should not compost.
“I can think of three reasons that students might not do the composting correctly,” said Aj Thakkar, a graduate student volunteering at Rebecca’s. “The first is that they don’t have time, but this is just an excuse because it literally takes less than a minute. The second is that they are unaware, and this is where HEAT comes in to make sure that everyone knows the options that are available to know. The third is that they aren’t interested, but I don’t think this can be true. Everyone has an interest in helping Mother Nature.”
In total, there are roughly 20 students helping out at different times at Rebecca’s. As part of the push to be environmentally-friendly, Northeastern also offers composting at each of its dining halls.
“We started to integrate composting in our dining services starting at Stetson East and then Stetson West, and when the new dining hall was built at International Village (IV), they had composting there too,” Feldish said. “Everything disposable is compostable in the IV [dining hall], and in Stetson East and West, the only things that aren’t are chip bags, soup crackers bags and the staples on teabags.”
This simplicity helps students, she said, because unlike at Rebecca’s, which has an additional category for recyclable items, everything in the dining halls is either compostable, trash or reusable.
But when the composting initiative was implemented six years ago, there were HEAT members helping students out in Steston East, just like they are at Rebecca’s today, Feldish said.
At Rebecca’s, a partner manager said, the composting assistance from HEAT has been a benefit.
She said that in addition to the restaurant area, Rebecca’s recycles and composts multiple items from the kitchen as well in an effort to be sustainable.
“It’s been a great help to us,” the manager, Kathy Connors, said. “We’re too busy to have staff stand by the bins, so the signs they’ve put up along with the students that are there to help have really made a huge difference in keeping the composting and recycling on track.”
