Composting R Us
By Jordan Pelot-Whitcomb, Alumni Coordinator
The Berkeley Student Cooperative (BSC) began as a pioneer in composting services in the city of Berkeley, and now are a model for overall waste reduction. In 2000, the city of Berkeley approached the co-ops with a proposal to start a green waste pickup program. Prior to that, the city only picked up green waste from restaurants. The composting program started off with one dumpster in the Central Kitchen loading area. Within a year, we had green waste bin pickups at every house. As the city did not offer composting bins appropriate for use within the h
ouse, the Central Kitchen ordered several personalized green bins for every co-op kitchen, making it easier to dispose of green waste in compost bins rather than the trash can. Additional black bins were provided for houses that had personal compost piles. Within two years, green waste bins were made available for the co-op apartments, which house around 400 members. The city found our composting program so successful within the co-ops, that they provided composting to all households in Berkeley this last August. Each household was given a small composting bin for the kitchen to be emptied into the large general green waste bin picked up each week.
The Greek system at UC Berkeley, wishing to start composting services within their fraternities and sororities, first approached the city of Berkeley, and were directed to the co-ops for a sustainable model of a large scale composting program. Similarly, the Residential Halls of Stanford University have recently contacted the 
co-ops for guidance. This successful student co-op model has been facilitated and managed by several member employees who have served as the Waste Reduction and Recycling Coordinators over the past eight years under the guidance of the Central Kitchen Supervisor, Heather Grey. The current Waste Reduction and Recycling Coordinators are also working with UC Berkeley Day Cares to provide two compost bins and student volunteers to educate the toddlers there on composting (and to play with worms).
The BSC have long had extensive programs in waste reduction beyond simply composting. Each house has a waste reduction manager, which organizes the house’s recycling program as well as provides extensive education to the house on those three R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).Freepiles (designated areas or rooms to deposit clothing, electronics, or other stuff that is still usable but no longer wanted by the original owner)are commonplace in every house and hav
e been hailed as a prominent character of cooperative living. Among the Waste Reduction and Recycling Coordinators’ duties is to make the rounds and collect all grease saved from each house’s industrial stoves and distribute it to a company that converts the grease to biodiesel. These students are also currently researching green companies that recycle or reuse plastics that can’t be recycled normally. Most companies that do offer to haul away these types of plastics usually ship them off into the middle of the ocean or to China to be incinerated—not the greenest of solutions. Until a company is found to deal with these plastics, Central Kitchen is still ensuring that the reusable items such as yogurt containers are not ending up in the landfill, and donate such items to small organizations around the east bay such as day cares who utilize these plastics for art projects and such. Central Kitchen is also looking into eliminating the non-recyclable plastic that they use by delivering all food to the houses in reusable bins, rather than plastic bags.
This past semester, the City of Berkeley once again approached the co-ops to work collaboratively on a program to reduce the carbon footprint of the co-op houses. This program involves multiple steps to lower the electricity and gas use in each house, thus reducing the total amount of carbon emissions that the use of such energy produces. The four month program is currently being tested through two houses. Individual houses within the BSC, such as Kingman Hall, are also taking their own initiative in going Carbon Neutral, which means donating an amount based on the PG&E bill towards offsetting the same amount of carbon emissions produced via reforestation or investing in renewable energy sources, such as wind or solar. The Board of Directors of the BSC has most recently created a temporary student position, the Sustainability Coordinator. The goal of this position is to reduce the BSC’s environmental impact and save money through conservation, resource efficiency, education, and other innovative projects. The Sustainability Coordinator’s first order of business will be to assess the sustainability of the BSC and initiate projects that reduce the BSC’s overall environmental impact. Should this position prove successful, the BSC will include the Sustainability Coordinator as one of its student positions every semester until the organization has achieved carbon neutrality.
For more information on our current waste reduction services, click here.