The Resource Environmental Management Program (REMP) and Ithaca College Dining Services are making students responsible for sustainable dining.

On Oct. 1, IC Square became the first college site to initiate a sustainability program by setting up compost bins for students to separate their waste. Cayuga Compost, the college’s vendor, has received an extra cubic yard of waste per day since the addition of the program. Previously, the vendor received three compressed cubic yards per day from all dining halls on campus combined.

REMP Supervisor Mark Darling, who oversaw the initial project this past summer, reported that “trash copping” – REMP students and organizers directing students through the composting program – helped college students pick up the process faster.

“It’s actually gotten better since the beginning [of October]… it’s been pretty consistent,” Darling said.

Marian Brown, assistant to the provost, said composting has taken place for years

behind the closed doors of on-campus kitchens, but for the first time the system is

dependent on the actions of the college’s community. The program also serves as an educational function for students.

“[This makes] more people aware of the importance of composting and their impact on the waste stream,” Brown said.

The items at IC Square have been compostable for months, she said, but students were not aware of the change and were not provided with the means to take advantage of it.

“[The bin system was] an important step we needed to take,” Brown said.

The system now in place at IC Square consists of several bins marked for compost only items, which are made out of a paper or corn-oil base. A tri-fold sign above the containers explains which items are biodegradable, like plastic utensils and napkins, and which ones are not, like cream cheese containers and ketchup packets.

The composting system allows for biodegradable cutlery to be broken down and reused for the environment. Through composting, the waste generated by students is decomposed into a rich soil called humus, on which growing plants thrive. If not

composted, waste goes into landfills where the material cannot be reused.

Seniors Jennifer Chen and Kara Oberg were active in starting the program. Chen, who is an environmental studies and politics double major, worked with REMP over the summer. She said the Talloires Declaration, signed by college administrators in February 2006, helped get the project going.

 “We have all these commitments [to sustainability],” Chen said. “We should be doing something about them.”

Chen said REMP will meet to discuss how it can make the program easier for students to follow. She said REMP wants to create permanent signs above the bins to help students understand how to separate their waste.

“Some students have expressed frustration,” she said.

Brown said Ithaca Dining Services is considering purchasing materials that are one color, like an environmentally symbolic green, so students will recognize biodegradable materials.

Darling said students have done the job well enough to produce 80 to 90 percent of composted waste. He said the 10 to 20 percent that was not composted results from students who are confused or do not care.

“It’s the usual recycling education part,” Darling said. “There are those who will pay attention and those who don’t, but I feel good that we’re getting [attention] diverted this way.”

Abigail Dana, a senior English major, said she composts her garbage regularly at IC Square.

“I think [the composting bins are] a really good thing because in the long run, [students] generate a lot of trash,” she said. “I hope they start doing it on other parts of campus.”

Darling said students can expect to see more bins around campus by January 2008.

“By [then] we’ll be collecting from all the retail operations on site,” he said.

Darling said REMP will separate waste at the coffee carts in Park Hall, the Center for Natural Sciences and the new School of Business.

“All these programs are about the future,” he said. “My generation and my parents’

generation screwed things up, and [college students] are going to have to fix it … It’s what [they] can do for themselves now and for the future and for their children.”