MUN (St. John’s Campus) Composting Pilot Project

Abstract

The Memorial University Botanical Garden, in partnership with the Sustainability Office (Facilities Management) and Aramark (Memorial’s food services provider) implemented a composting program in the main dining hall on the St. John’s campus. A three compartment concrete composting platform was constructed at the Botanical Garden to create a three pile static composting system. Raw fruit and vegetable waste from the “back-of-house” kitchen area of the dining hall was transported to the compost pile twice weekly. A 1:1:1 leaf mold/horse manure/sawdust mix was added to the organic matter to aid the composting process. Over 2,300 kg of food waste was diverted from the waste stream between February and May, 2015. Since the end of the project period, composting of food waste from the dining hall has continued.