Learn to Compost: The Future You Save May Be Your Own

Tracy Scalabrino tends the compost bins that
are part of the Compost Education Project.
(photo BA)
Interested in the best dirt? Head out back behind the tennis courts under the old oak tree by the railroad track, where Tracy Scalabrino and Elizabeth Grotenhuis are creating the Compost Education Project. On a recent sunny day, a respite from the storms delaying their project, Scalabrino and Grotenhuis were busy setting out flowers in tires filled with compost-enriched soil and organizing a display of compost bins. When completed, the area will boast a series of demonstration bins, a work table and benches for composting workshops, and a flower and herb garden.

The compost project is an educational tool for the campus, local schools, and the community. Mark Stemen, adviser to environmental interns, explained that the average American produces 1500 pounds of garbage per year, the average Californian 2500 pounds. The three largest items in the waste stream are paper; construction and demolition debris; and organics, such as food and landscaping waste. According to Stemen, "Some people say as much as 20 percent of what is going into the landfills is organics." Composting kitchen scraps and yard clippings keeps this waste out of the landfills, enriches the soil, and grows new food and yard plantings.

The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 required a 25 percent diversion of waste from landfills by 1995 and a 50 percent diversion by 2000. Any city not meeting its goals will be fined up to $10,000 a day. Because the City of Chico needs to do compost education as part of their agreement with the California Integrated Waste Management Program, "The students are really providing community service for this campus, for the city, and for the state by teaching people waste management," said Stemen. The city provided the students with $600 worth of workshop advertising.

Composting education is also a byproduct of the AS. Composting Program. Barbara Kopicki, AS. Chico Recycling Program coordinator, exclaimed, "Compost is fun." Last year, the composting program diverted 22,000 pounds of organic waste by collecting campus kitchen scraps. People working at the collection sites learned about composting by seeing what was collected and how it was used. The kitchen scraps were taken to the University Farm where they were composted and used for crops. Some of these crops made their way back to the campus kitchens. For example, the Butte Culinary Academy is one of the collection locations and uses seasonal food from the University Farm. As Kopicki said, "It closes up the loop."

Both were also drawn to the compost project as a way to build something from nothing. They had to put it all together, from the planning, to the successful $2700 proposal submitted to the AS. Revenue Allocation Committee, to site development, to compost creation and monitoring, to workshop development. Scalabrino wanted a project that would be "permanent on campus." Someday, she wants to "come back and see it running and still see people working with it."

Stemen expressed his faith in all the students he supervises, exclaiming "They inspire me. They're going to do it. They're going to save the world." After a moment of contemplation, he repeated, "They're going to do it."