New compost station opens at PSU

The Viking Food Court’s new compost station—the product of a collaboration between Aramark Dining Services, PSU Recycles! and the Smith Center—opened on Tuesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Portland State President Wim Wiewel.

Although PSU does compost, the composting station is the first on campus that allows students to take part in the process, said Honoré Depewe, the education and outreach specialist for PSU Recycles! and a student sustainability ambassador.

“People started using it right after the ribbon-cutting,”he said.

Composting is the breaking down of organic material that can later be used as a product, such as fertilizer or animal bedding. According to Depewe, the greenhouse gases—or methane—released from organic waste is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Having organic waste disposed of in a compost facility, rather than in a landfill, eliminates such dangerous emissions.

“[The compost station] will reduce the carbon footprint of the university,” Depewe said.

According to Lisa Potter, director of dining services, the costs affiliated with the station were paid for by Aramark.

In addition, Aramark is responsible for managing the station. However, starting next week, volunteers from the Sustainability Leadership Center will help inform students on how to use the station.

“As for Aramark and PSU, we both have the same initiative for supporting sustainability on campus,” Potter said.  

According to Potter, she and Christel Eichner of PSU Recycles! worked on the project for about a year before it was realized.

As of now, Portland has no commercial compost facility; all of the waste collected by Trashco is taken to Cedar Grove Composting, located just south of Seattle, Wash.

According to Depewe, the facility there has the capability of achieving temperatures high enough to break down items such as food, bones and even pizza boxes.

The new station at PSU followed the example of a similar operation at Evergreen State College. However, managing a compost station in an urban university poses a different challenge, according to Depewe. Not only is PSU a larger school than Evergreen, its barriers are much more “permeable.”

Depewe pointed out that someone could easily buy a coffee off-campus, and then walk into the Viking Food Court and throw it away in the compost station, resulting in contamination. When the waste is transported to Cedar Grove, each truckload must be examined; if over 5 percent of it is contaminated, the entire load has to be taken to a landfill.

Though there is no current compost facility in Portland, the City Council approved a curbside food composting pilot project last March, according to The Oregonian.