Composting at the Bison Café
That's as heavy as an adult male Asian elephant
15,239 pounds
of food have been diverted from the landfill
What is Composting and why is it important?
The successful decomposition of food depends on one factor: oxygen. Because oxygen is largely absent in landfills due to waste being buried many layers deep, naturally occurring microbes are unable to properly decompose food waste. This results in the emission of methane, a greenhouse gas that is even more potent than carbon dioxide. Composting is a much more advantageous process that takes place in an aerobic environment that allows microbes to break down food into reusable organic material. Instead of producing a harmful greenhouse gas as a by-product, composting transforms food waste into nutrient rich organic material. In the end, composting is really about the circle of life; what comes from the earth returns to the earth.
About the Initiative
Isadora Koch, a junior Sustainability student and YECA Fellow, has worked alongside Darry Huntsman of Sodexo and the Lipscomb Student Government Association to establish a partnership with Compost Nashville to compost all pre-consumer waste from kitchen preparation as an initiative to address food waste. Composting is an important practice that is bringing Lipscomb to new heights of sustainability by closing the food loop. In this way composting allows for Lipscomb to serve God and the community by making Nashville and the planet a more sustainable place to live.
