St Olaf Uses Industrial Composter for all Food Waste

In 2004, members of the St Olaf Environmental Coalition collected and weighed all the cafeteria waste for a week. Shortly after, the college purchased an in-vessel composter from Wright Environmental Management. The composter is installed on land just south of North Avenue, and is able to handle up to a ton of waste a day. The composter combines food waste (including dairy products and meat) with woodchips, pizza boxes and other paper products, converting this recipe to fertilizer in a period of 14 days.  All of the compost will be used on the college's flower beds and agricultural fields.

Our composter is good for us and good for the natural communities of the college, but it's also good for the human community of Northfield, because we can reduce pressure on the public sewage treatment plant. It's no longer a situation of "garbage in, garbage out." With a composter, it's "garbage in, compost out."