LSU students research composting, energy use

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Mar 16, 2009 - Page: 1B

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LSU student Alisha Andrews and her classmates started with pre-waste, such as vegetable peelings, as part of a pilot project but have added post-consumer waste — uneaten food that would otherwise be discarded.

Currently, the class is focusing only on 459 Commons dining hall and taking kitchen waste to a composting area at the LSU Agricultural Center’s Callegari Center daily. “We’ve gotten 200 pounds on any given day,” Andrews said.

The project is considering how much time it takes, how much fuel is required to transport the material and how much in savings composting food waste could generate to see if it’s feasible to try it at more food centers on campus, professor Carl Motsenbocker said.

“We’re trying to identify where all this waste is on campus that could go into this process,” he said.

Last year, LSU hired a sustainability director to help the university find ways to be more “green.” This semester, the “Exploring Campus Sustainability: From Waste Streams to Food Production” class is working on projects, including composting food waste, to help make that vision move forward.

The class is an educational and project-learning format which gives students a chance to do hands-on work, Motsenbocker said.

The class will give feedback to the Campus Committee for Sustainability on a variety of issues, such as using locally grown food in the cafeterias and raising awareness about sustainability issues, such as energy use in the dormitories.

Local food — food grown generally within a 200-mile radius of a location — has a smaller environmental footprint because there are fewer transportation costs and less pollution associated with it.

Currently, the students are looking at what the campus cafeterias need, how much and when they need it as well as compiling a list of potential food producers, said student Matt Moerschbaecher. “If we can get some local food in there two or three times a week, it would be a start,” he said.

Motsenbocker agreed.

“LSU is receptive to local foods,” Motsenbocker said. But the logistics of getting enough of what the cafeteria system needs — when the system needs it — is being discussed, he said.

The class is brainstorming on an idea that would have a model farm close to campus to grow food and another larger farm farther away that could be used to demonstrate methods  of sustainability.

“We have the Hill Farm, but we may not have that for vegetable growing for much longer,” said student Stephanie Elwood.