Last month, sustainability champions from all 24 of the Penn State campuses gathered by Zoom for the fourth Commonwealth Campus Sustainability Forums, an annual event hosted by the Sustainability Institute to bring campuses together to collaborate and to network on sustainability initiatives.
To compost or not to compost? That is the question some people ask themselves before throwing out their waste.
At Penn State, composting efforts start in the dining halls and end in the facilities of the Organic Materials Processing and Education Center, where the compost then makes it way back onto campus grounds, the Student Farm and into the community.
Ryan McCaughey, manager of grounds and equipment who works closely with the composting process, said the solid waste management department collects food waste from the dining halls and waste from office composting bins, which then gets tossed with leaves and switchgrass from the Arboretum to make the body of the compost.