The times, they are a-changin’, especially since the spring. The Libe has two new leather couches (Oh, those huge and grotesque beige ones? Oh, right.) Burton no longer serves Saturday breakfast. And the campus washers have an inflation rate that only the Weimar Republic could beat (33%!?!).
And what’s with all those yellow bins?
Over the summer, the golden cylinders cropped up in the dining halls and the snack bar. They’re part of Rob Oden’s President’s Climate Commitment, with the main goal of lowering CO2 emissions from campus. The yellow bins will be used for composting and, hopefully, the reduction of waste sent to landfills.
Before this composting effort, the dining halls dumped waste into the sewers and the trash. Now they’ve joined forces with the Snack Bar to collect and compost any food waste. The waste is converted to soil, which will be used on Carleton grounds. That’s right, soon you’ll be walking on that half-eaten meatloaf from last Tuesday’s dinner.
Other changes Carleton is making as part of the Climate Commitment include electronic work-time entry to reduce paper waste, one-stream recycling, and biodegradable utensils in the snack bar.
The tan-colored forks, knives and spoons in the snack bar are completely biodegradable, just like food. But even though they’re made out of corn, they’re less than appetizing (Those of you who have already tried them can attest to this).
Environmental advocacy groups on campus, such as SOPE and Green House have pushed for a composting system over the past few years. Beth Bennet ‘07, did her ENTS capstone project on a cost-benefit analysis of implementing the composting. She found that it would not be very cost-effective, which in Carleton lingo means that “the College would have to do this because it’s the right thing to do.”
“Composting is beautiful because it’s so simple. It’s a complete circle that’s very transparent,” Bennett said.
So how are students warming up to the new yellow bins? They’re still underutilized in the dining halls, but the snack bar regulars seem to have it figured out.
During second week, students in Sayles seemed only mildly pleased about the change. The exception to this was Bessie Schwarz ’08, who was thrilled to see the bins.
Lyndsey Shaughnessy ’09 added that she would like to see composting bins inside the dorms where there currently are none.
So what do Carls need to know about the new program? When turning in a tray at the dining hall, scrape any extra food into the yellow bins. At the snack bar, everything – including plates and utensils – can go into the bin labeled composting.
Now that one-stream recycling has been implemented, paper, plastic, bottles, and metal can all go into the same recycling bin.
If you have anything left over after that, you can throw it in the trash can – which in the Snack Bar is starting to look rather small and exiled and maybe even feeling sorry for itself.
