Hathaway House Goes Green
Students Encouraged by Successful Composting

Hathaway House students operated a successful composting operation in 2003–2004, thanks to the donation of a composter by the student group LORAX. “We are poised for another year of turning food waste into soil,” says Sal Diamond, husband of house parent and science faculty member Diane Gilbert-Diamond. In 2002, Diane and Sal contacted the School’s recycling coordinator, Leslie Will, to propose the idea. In turn, Leslie worked with the student environmental issues club, LORAX, to raise $500 for the composter. And, in the spring of 2003, the facilities installed the equipment near the house entrance.

On sit-down dinner nights in Hathaway House, students scrape non-meat food waste and shredded napkins into bowls that clearers empty into a five-gallon pail in the kitchen, then seal shut. The kitchen staff also helps by disposing coffee grounds and non-meat leftovers in the compost. Periodically, Sal empties the compost bucket into the composter and rotates the composting drum. Once a month, when the compost is finished 'cooking,’ he moves it from the composter to the compost pile in the woods.

Mark Hilgendorf, history faculty member and Hathaway house parent, as well as members of the grounds crew and other gardeners, have used the compost on their plants. Sal estimates that over 12 wheel-barrel loads of food waste were converted into compost last year, keeping that waste from going into the dumpster or the disposal with hundreds of gallons of water. With this and the free compost to the gardeners, the investment paid for itself in the first year.

Sal is working with students in the recycling club (CARE – Campus Awareness for Recycling and the Environment), hoping to involve them in the operation. The group may also investigate large-scale food service composting to see if it could be viable on campus.

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