UC Davis Expands Composting to Stadiums

-- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 4/1/2008

First school kitchens, then dining halls, now … stadiums? The University of California at Davis has expanded its composting and recycling program to include, not just the main dining areas, but also its football stadium. School officials said they have plans to include other stadiums and sports facilities in the mix hopefully this year.

The composting/recycling program at the University of California at Davis began six years ago. This consists of sending pre-consumed food waste from the prep kitchens to an on-site composting facility, largely used for the school's on-campus farm, according to James Boushka, marketing director for the University of California at Davis. In 2006, the program expanded to include post-consumer waste, which UC Davis ships to a local composting company. Now, last fall just in time for football season, the university took another step forward when it began post-consumer composting and recycling at its newly renovated Aggie Stadium.

Separate receptacles hold recycled material and food waste at UC Davis' newly renovated Aggie Stadium as part of the university's expanding composting program.

The difference between pre- and post-consumer waste in terms of composting has to do with the added time and heating requirements of post-consumer waste in order for it to decompose properly and safely, since food has been exposed to human contact and other environmental elements, Boushka said. As a result, post-consumer waste at UC Davis gets shipped to Jepson Prairie Organics, a composting facility that transforms the waste into organic fertilizer for soil. Local farms then use the soil to grow organic produce, and the cycle continues.

At Aggie Stadium, composting and recycling receptacles have replaced traditional garbage cans, both throughout the stadium as well as within the small concession area for staff use. At the end of the day, trained staff members drive around in carts to pick up the waste, and then transport it to the 40-ton compactor that holds the waste until Jepson picks it up. Boushka said the university has plans to roll out the program to other facilities, but officials are still working on the logistics of picking up and transporting the waste around campus to the designated compost pick-up area.

“We accumulate about 2,400 pounds of waste just from the stadium, and a little over 1,000 pounds from each dining hall,” Boushka said. Overall, the stadium, four dining halls and the university's small retail outposts send slightly more than 100 tons, repeat tons, of composting matter, to Jepson each month.

The new program continues to generate positive reactions from students, staff, stadium-goers and even other universities and institutions throughout the country, Boushka said. “We've received many phone calls from different athletic stadiums and universities asking us how we do it. We were surprised by the reaction from the broader community.”

In addition, the school uses biodegradable bags to transport the material as well as biodegradable, disposable dinnerware, silverware, even straws made from corn- and potato-based materials, taking the waste management efforts a step further. Next up: biodegradable packaging.

“On Jan. 31, we engaged students in a letter-writing campaign to food and beverage manufacturers whose food products we use but that are not compostable in terms of the packaging,” Boushka said. Instead of cutting beloved cafeteria treats, Boushka said, the letter-writing campaign was intended to help resolve some of these issues while also opening companies' eyes up to a growing demand for more earth-friendly products.

“Students really are paying attention to green-friendly initiatives, and they want some of these changes to be made on a bigger scale,” Boushka said. “I think it is important as a food organization to consider alternative forms of packaging.”

The composting/recycling program at UC Davis did come with challenges.

“Recycling and composting sounds easy, but there is a lot of training that goes into it,” Boushka said. Especially as a student-run program, everyone involved needs to be up to speed on current procedures, including concession workers at the stadiums, and the customers using the recycling/composting bins. In addition, the program extends to all catering operations on campus.

“We have 45 full-time students that need to be trained, and putting the waste in the compactor easily takes 10-plus people,” Boushka said.

Although maintaining and expanding the program can be challenging, Boushka said it creates an estimated 83.9-percent diversion rate of vendor- and crowd-generated waste that would have ended up in landfills, including 1,500 pounds of recyclable plastic bottles collected at Aggie Stadium by the end of the five-game football season last year.