Students, but not Leo’s, embrace composting food waste

For a time, tired students trudging into Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall could at least take solace in their sustainable eating habits. Their napkin dispensers reminded them each day. “Did you know Leo’s composts?”

Ever since the program’s start four years ago, Georgetown University Dining Services claims to have composted over 130 tons of food waste per year, which puts them “well ahead” of other local academic institutions, according to William Del Vecchio, the University’s Recycling and Solid Waste Disposal Manager.

Even so, Del Vecchio says the claim on Georgetown Dining Services website that “90 percent of all waste from Leo’s Dining Hall is composted” is false.

“Ninety percent of waste is diverted,” he said. ‘The plan for diversion is that it’s just not going to the landfill. We made a commitment at Georgetown not to take any of our waste [to] landfills.” Instead, food waste that is not composted is sent to a certified energy- from-waste facility in Alexandria, Vir. where it is incinerated to generate electricity.

“By substituting an energy plan, we are actually in fact recycling 90 percent [of food waste],” said Del Vecchio. “Composting, on the other hand … is something different.”

What food waste is composted at Leo’s is transported to the Waste Management transfer station at Annapolis Junction, Md., and then on to a compost facility in Delaware, where it is sold to farmers and gardeners. Mark Waterman (SFS ‘13), who runs the student community garden at Georgetown, says the waste could be put to better use.

“Since there are closer options of gardens that would readily accept more of this material, it doesn’t really make sense making weekly heavy load trips to Delaware,” Waterman said. “I think there are plenty of positive uses for compost in and around the Georgetown campus and in and around the D.C. area, and to drive compost to Delaware seems rather nonsensical to me because the fossil fuels burnt in transit are a negative effect on the environment when our end goal is to be accomplishing something positive in the environment.”

Waterman went on to say that the garden’s self-made compost of weeds, leaves, and scraps can take up to six months to become a usable soil for gardening. Leo’s food scraps, on the other hand, are already partially broken down and are richer in nutrients than the plant-only compost.

Any potential collaboration between the dining hall and the garden has yet to be explored. One reason could be the dining hall management’s tight-lipped policy about composting practices. The Voice was repeatedly rebuked by contacts at Georgetown Dining when reporters asked for elaboration on composting practices, and was not given permission to enter the kitchen to observe the composting process.

But even if Waterman’s garden cannot count on nourishment from the dining hall’s food waste, there is another composting program up and running on the Hilltop with the express purpose of helping the community garden. Over 25 Magis Row townhouses and apartments compost their scraps for use in the garden, and a few RAs have even taken the project on in their dorms. Colin Doyle (COL ‘13), who founded the program, says it is successful and growing.

“The garden club and I built a large wooden compost bin up on Kehoe Field,” Doyle wrote in an email. “And much of what we composted [last year] was used already this summer in the community garden beds up there on Kehoe.”

He believes the initiative is wholly positive for the community.

“This project demonstrates how we really can make a difference by doing small things like composting on a day-to-day basis,” Doyle wrote. “And we get to see the results of our efforts by actually using the compost ourselves here on campus to grow vegetables.”

But as hopeful as he is, Doyle realizes his program is still in its infancy, and it will take more than a few townhouses to make a large impact.

“The hard part now,” he wrote, “will be to make composting available campus-wide and commonplace in Georgetown life.”