Almost all items coming from the Rock’s Edge Café in the Wade King Student Recreation Center are compostable, Western senior Karina Haaseth said. But the center lacks any sort of composting for students.
Haaseth has worked at the Rock’s Edge for three years and said she has asked to get a compost bin in the building.
“I’ve asked a long time ago, because it really bothers me,” she said.
She said two years ago the Rock’s Edge received a compost bin behind the counter for internal composting, but it isn’t enough.
Currently, Haaseth tells students if they bring back their compostable garbage she’ll throw it in the bin behind the counter. Only a small fraction of the people she tells come back to have her compost their garbage, she said.
Adam Leonard, associate director of campus recreation services, said students have not approached him about getting compost bins in the rec center.
“If the type of garbage from the rec center is able to be placed into compost then I believe that it would be a benefit,” Leonard said in an email.
Western sophomore Katelyn Ronning, who started working at the rec center at the end of fall quarter, said she also sees the need for a compost bin.
“We are eating fruit a lot, and it kind of sucks having to throw it in the garbage,” Ronning said. “There’s no real compost in this area.”
Ronning said, because there are already recycling bins in the rec center, it shouldn’t be too hard to start composting.
Leonard said if a request for compost bins was brought to him, the rec center’s staff would discuss the logistics of getting bins and work with the Associated Students Recycling Center.
Richard Neyer, general manager of the AS Recycling Center, said, “The difficulty with compost — the reason it’s not expanding to wherever it’s needed — is because it’s pretty expensive.”
The bags used to line the bins need to be compostable and cost between $1 and $2, Neyer said.
The cost of setting up the bins and getting the bags would fall to the rec center, Neyer said. The AS Recycling Center would provide an outside bin and pick up the compost if the rec center had bins in the building, Neyer said.
Currently compost is collected from Parks Hall, Arntzen Hall, the Academic Instructional Center and Haggard Hall.
Neyer said composting is important, but the focus should be on programs such as the Haggard Hall pilot program for composting paper towels.
“If it was up to me, I would say get a system to focus on the compost of the paper towels in the bathrooms,” Neyer said.
Rec Center is LEED certified
The U.S. Green Building Council developed Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design in 2000. The LEED rating system is developed through LEED committees.
The Wade King Student Recreation center is one of two LEED certified buildings Western has. It was also the first recreation center on a university campus to become LEED certified. The other LEED certified building is Academic Instruction Center. Miller hall is built to be LEED certified, but is not yet.
To become LEED certified, the rec center had to meet at least 26 criteria points, such as sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, indoor environmental quality, innovation and design process and materials and resources.
Four levels of LEED recognition are possible, ranging from certified to platinum.
More than nine billion square feet of building space is rated by the LEED system. LEED work is changing the way buildings are being designed and constructed, according to the U.S. Green Building Council’s website.
The goals of LEED-certified buildings are to help lower the operating costs, reduce waste sent to landfills, make buildings healthier and safer for the occupants and to reduce greenhouse emissions.
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