St. John's Students Host Their First Food
Composting Event
When it comes to food-waste recycling, students at St. John's
University are learning by doing and the benefits include reducing
harmful greenhouse gas emissions, closing
the lifecycle loop on food production and producing a valuable
resource: “compost” from an environmentally damaging waste
product.
Recently, St. John's students hosted their first food composting
event on the Queens campus. The event on July 10 provided them with
the opportunity to meet Rocket Composter®
inventor Simon Webb and to learn how and why, for health and
environmental reasons, food waste is being diverted from landfills
all across Europe.
Photo Gallery
For many universities in the United Kingdom, on-site in-vessel food
composting using the Rocket® (the same composting tool currently
employed at St. John's) has become the solution to meeting the
UK's target of reducing biodegradable waste at landfills
by 8 million tons per year by 2013.
The composting event also afforded St. John's students the
opportunity to network with instructors from the Bronx, Brooklyn
and Queens Botanical Gardens, the New York City Bureau of Waste
Prevention and the Lower Eastside Ecology Center, all part of
through the
New York City Compost Project . They also received an open
invitation to take advantage of the services and workshops hosted
at the Botanical Gardens.
Gina Capentankis, Dining Marketing Manager for Chartwells,
the University's dining services provider, contributed to the event
by presenting information on her company's sustainability
practices. Bragging rights for the day went to the Chartwells
manager after she served a lunch that consisted of locally grown
produce served with compostable plates, forks and knives,
The event concluded with a demonstration of the Rocket Composter®
and expert advice on starting an organic garden.