Dining hall recycling cuts Saint Martin’s footprint

Food-waste recycling got off to a strong start last week at Saint Martin’s University.

Working with Sodexho Food Services and Thurston County Solid Waste, hundreds of lunch and dinner customers in St. Gertrude Dining Hall received a crash course in what goes in the food recycling container and what goes in the garbage.

Diners are now able to separate their compostable trash — including paper, paper cups, napkins and all food scraps, including bones — into one of the recycling bins. Also new in the dining hall are bins for plastic bottles, aluminum cans and glass.

Sodexho already had switched to biodegradable straws, plates and utensils, general manager Dale Askew said.

“This was the next, logical step,” he added.

The initial assessment suggests that 75 percent of cafeteria and kitchen waste generated in the dining hall is eligible for recycling, Terri Thomas of Thurston County Solid Waste said.

Teaching

Askew and Thomas stood by the bins during lunch and dinner last week, serving as food waste traffic cops.

Even the paper receipts dining hall customers receive at the cash register can go into the food waste bins, SMU freshman Kataira Jesernig learned.

“I’m glad to see the recycling program,” she said. “I wondered why we didn’t have it already.”

Students who recycle at home were quick to catch on, while others needed more instruction.

“I think they’re getting the hang of it,” said Jake Veitenheimer, a student manager in the dining hall.

Saving money

The university will save money on garbage disposal bills while reducing the campus carbon footprint, Thomas said. That means campus activities are responsible for fewer greenhouse gas emissions because it takes less energy to make products out of recycled material, compared with raw natural resources, Thomas explained.

The food and compostable paper waste will be delivered by LeMay Enterprises to Silver Springs Organics, a commercial composting center near Rainier, where materials are mixed with yard and wood waste to make compost.

“The objectives of this recycling program — being responsible with our resources and taking care of the earth — align with many of the Benedictine values we embrace at Saint Martin’s,” said Susan Leyster, director of the campus ministry.

Saint Martin’s is an independent, four-year, Catholic coeducational university situated on a 320-acre wooded campus in Lacey. Home to 1,250 students, it was founded in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict.

Food waste recycling is growing in South Sound, Thomas said. The county is working with some larger institutions, including South Puget Sound Community College, which diverted about 8.85 tons of compostable material from its waste stream from October 2007 through January 2008.

A test at the Thurston County Jail found an estimated three tons of food and associated waste ripe for recycling, Thomas said.

A 2004 survey of garbage sent to the Hawks Prairie Waste and Recovery Center revealed that 18 percent of it was food waste and 4 percent was food-related paper products, she added.