Baylor Expands Campus Sustainability through Dining Hall Composting

Through a number of initiatives, sustainability efforts at Baylor University are making positive changes on campus and in local communities, including food security. One of the Baylor initiatives is this fall’s expansion of composting efforts at all six campus dining facilities.

A member of Waco’s Sustainable Community and Regenerative Agriculture Project or “S.C.R.A.P” Collective, Baylor works with other community partners to create an ecosystem of urban gardens, farms and educational programs to nurture community health, reduce landfill emissions and increase environmental justice. 

Expanded composting program 

Through a partnership with Moonshot, a food waste solution organization, and Chartwells Higher Education, the University’s new campus dining partner, more than 190,000 pounds of food waste have been diverted from landfills and into composting efforts since the start of a pilot program in Fall ‘23. Baylor students, staff and faculty can see the real-time efforts of sustainability and composting on the online Moonshot tracker.

“It’s really helpful to have a partner like Moonshot that can service food waste for composting just like we service trash and recycled materials for processing,” said Gary Cocke, senior director of sustainability at Baylor. “It’s a double-edged sword because we’re happy we aren’t sending food waste to the landfill, but we obviously want to bring down food waste on campus.” 

The main goal of composting efforts is to reduce the overall amount of waste generated. This process involves working closely with Chartwells to ensure that there is no unnecessary food waste.

“We are tracking the volumes weekly to ensure usage and to target training areas requiring assistance,” said Peter Granick, associate vice president of business services and chief procurement officer. “The transition has been largely successful. We anticipate volumes to pick up even more as training heightens awareness and drives volume through increased knowledge.”

In addition, Baylor is making strides to align efforts with the EPA’s Wasted Food Scale, prioritizing source reduction, feeding hungry people and composting. These efforts include ensuring that students have access to dining facilities through dining swipe donations. 

"The most preferred thing from the EPA is that we aren’t creating any unnecessary food waste by making sure we are purchasing and preparing the appropriate amount as well as serving according to need,” Cocke said. “The next step is to feed hungry people through donation because we recognize that students deal with food insecurity.” 

Additional changes have been made in the dining halls to make the compost efforts as seamless as possible, such as ensuring that all waste that comes through the kitchen is compostable, including to-go containers and flatware, and anything not compostable is reusable. 

The focus longer term, Granick said, is reducing overall solid waste from the dining halls.

Individual and community accessibility

Local community members, students, campus departments and families can actively participate in the composting efforts at the Baylor Community Garden through the Compost Bucket Program. Funded by S.C.R.A.P. initiatives, compost buckets are distributed during workshops, events or class visits to the garden. 

“On average, we collect about 100 to 150 pounds of compostable material each week from students and community members in the neighborhood,” said Andrea Valdez, Baylor Community Garden and urban agriculture outreach program manager. “We aim to make composting as easy and accessible for everyone.”

The Baylor Community Garden’s compost drop-off location is open year-round, with food waste drop-offs accepted at any time. Faculty and graduate students maintain the garden throughout the summer. To request a bucket, interested individuals or groups can email communitygarden@baylor.edu to arrange a bucket pickup. 

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. Learn more about Baylor University at www.baylor.edu.