Tufts Recycles! - Composting at Tufts

Food Waste Composting by Tufts Dining Department

During the academic year, the Medford campus now composts a little over 1 ton of food waste each day. Our annual total is now over 200 tons:

FY01	FY02	FY03	FY04	FY05	FY06	FY07	FY08	FY09	FY10
106.2 tons	82.1 tons	97.35 tons	147.7 tons	156 tons	170.6 tons	181 tons	211 tons	221 tons	tons

The composting program has allowed Dining Services to reduce its yearly solid food and non-food waste sent to the dumpsite by 62%. Dining Service employees in Carmichael Dining Hall, Dewick-MacPhie Dining Hall, the Catering Department and in the university's Central Production Facility place food scraps and organic materials into composting bins.

Food waste from Tufts is picked up from two haulers. Save That Stuff collects from Carmichael Dining Hall and takes the material to Rocky Hill Farm in Saugus MA. Thompson (Herb's) Disposal picks up material from Dewick Mac-Phie and takes it to DEP-permitted compost facilities in Massachusetts and it can travel all the way to Maine. Our food waste is combined with leaves and other organic materials to generate nutrient-rich compost for farmers and landscapers.

Keeping organic materials out of Massachusetts' already crowded landfills not only saves landfill space but also cuts the generation of methane-a powerful greenhouse gas created from organic materials' anaerobic decomposition.

Tufts students have found that compared to the amount of methane prevented by composting, the carbon emissions from the Thompson Disposal hauling truck are negligible.

For more information about composting, the world's oldest recycling system, please visit www.vegweb.com/composting.

top of page

Tufts Dining separates food scraps during meal preparation.

The food Tufts students leave on their trays is emptied into the "river" by dishroom staff. Food scraps are then "pulped" to extract water. The finished scraps appears like a hummus.

top of page

Drop-off Sites for the Tufts Community

Two drop-off bins have opened on campus since the fall of 2009. After high demand, off-campus and residential students, along with administrative departments on campus can now start composting. These bins are not open to the public at large.

No animal products or bioplastics please. These bins are emptied into our yard waste dumpster which has more restrictions than commercial composting facilities. Thank you to our wonderful Grounds crew who service the bins.

Up Hill Bin: Rear of Miller Hall next to the Tufts Institute of the Environment (TIE). The locked bin can be accessed during business hours by picking up the key which hangs on a hook in TIE entranceway. Please return key and lock the bin.

Down Hill Bin: Tisch Library rear loading dock. This bin can be accessed any time of day because the key is kept in a box on the wall. Please return key and lock bin.

top of page

Yard Waste

The Medford Campus also composts all its yard waste. LandscapeXpress, a local company, picks up leaves and other yard waste. The yard waste numbers are converted from cubic yard to tons.

FY 02	FY 03	FY 04	FY 05	FY 06	FY 07	FY 08	FY 09	FY 10
425 tons	430 tons	502 tons	437 tons	510 tons	476 tons	435 tons

Yard waste is measured in cubic yards, not in tons. The conversion we used is 500 lbs per cubic yard. Tufts has four lawn mowers which chop the grass making our yard waste very dense. Industry average weight per cubic yard ranges from 350-500 per pound.

Our Grafton campus composts all its manure, bedding and yard waste on site. The compost is used as fertilizer on the fields.

top of page