Efforts to “go green” paying off at Malaspina

Culinary Arts and Professional Baking students at Malaspina University-College are learning a lot more than how to prepare good food. They’re also learning how to protect the environment.

In the past year, the students have diverted more than 73 metric tonnes (160,600 pounds) of organic waste from the Nanaimo landfill. 

Organic waste generated in Malaspina’s two teaching kitchens goes straight to a composting facility at Duke Point run by International Composting Corporation (ICC). The material is cooked in giant digesters, cured for 21 days, and sold as compost in stores all over Vancouver Island.

“We voluntarily started the composting program when ICC approached us in March 2005,” said Debbie Shore, coordinator of Malaspina’s Culinary Arts program. “It’s good for the environment. We want our students and graduates to be environmentally aware, especially when they find jobs in industry.”

Students who prepare daily meals for Malaspina’s busy cafeterias place organic waste in compostable bags, including egg shells, bones, tea bags, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable trimmings, paper towels and napkins, paper plates and cups, pizza boxes, parchment paper and cheese cloth. Metal and plastic items are collected in separate totes, and recycled if possible.

The program is so successful that Malaspina and ICC received a Green Award from the City of Nanaimo for Environmental Awareness. Now Malaspina plans to expand its composting program in February.

“Students and staff eating lunch in the cafeterias will be invited to put organic food waste into the receptacles for composting,” explained Wayne Hiles, Manager of Facilities Services and Campus Development. “Stand alone bins for organic waste, similar to those already located in the teaching kitchens, will be installed in Malaspina’s two cafeterias. Paper towels from washroom facilities will also be collected for composting.”

Hiles said Malaspina also plans to purchase a wood chipper for yard waste collected on the Nanaimo campus. “We’ll send the chipped waste directly to ICC, so once again it means less material going into the Nanaimo landfill,” said Hiles. “ICC is pretty happy to hear we’ll be doing this because they need chipped wood for the composting process.”

Jordan Ellis of International Composting Corporation said Malaspina is one of the largest commercial operations on central Vancouver Island taking part in ICC’s composting program. The university-college is an “excellent example” of how composting can work in the community and province, Ellis said.