Composting Program Johnson County Community College

Overland Park, Kansas

Project Description:

The Johnson County Community College (JCCC) campus composting program is run entirely by paid student interns, who collect an average of 400 pounds of food waste every day in a bin system from preparation areas throughout the campus, using an electric truck. Because of space limitations, the program streamlines and accelerates the composting process using the first and possibly only in-vessel composter in Kansas. Students learn to amend the food mixture with sawdust collected from a local cabinet shop, creating the correct balance of carbon, nitrogen and moisture. They then monitor progress and odor while collecting temperature data as the food waste goes from the vessel to three piles for aging. Once a pile is mature, it gets delivered to the campus farm for use as a soil amendment.

Project Goals:

• Reduce the quantity of landfilled organics. The program decreases the total volume of waste by more than 52 tons per year, and saving more than $2,500 in hauling fees.
• Create jobs for students, teaching new skills in sustainability.
• Offer a model for other schools and institutions.

Community Benefits and Lessons Learned:

• The program has empowered student interns, expanding their contacts in the sustainability field and influencing their educational path through the skills learned.
• Finding vendors to perform maintenance on equipment has been challenging, as has creating backup plans for food waste logistics when equipment is down.
• Program participants have learned much about large-scale composting, how to make adjustments to the compost mixture and filtering.

Funding Sources and Partnerships:

Start-up funding for the JCCC Composting system came from a Congressionally Directed Project award through the Department of Energy. This funding covered the composter itself and the shed in which it is installed. Some expansion funding has come from the JCCC Sustainability Initiatives Fund along with full ongoing funding for the student internships. On-campus partnerships include Dining Services (where food waste originates), the Culinary Arts program (another source of waste), and the Campus Farm (where the compost is used). Off-campus partnerships have included the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, which has used the JCCC system as part of composting workshops.

Contact Information:

Email: sustainability@jccc.edu
www.jccc.edu/sustainability