Student Union (SG) President Nithin Palyam and Vice President Amy Pham’s campaign efforts to reduce food insecurity through food composting partnerships with local gardens have been halted after a meeting with the Sustainability Department. it was done.
The composting initiative was strongly supported by candidates during the pre-election debates in the spring of 2022. Reducing food waste was a top priority on the president’s and vice president’s environmental agendas, given Palyam’s talk about combating food insecurity, according to his Oracle in 2022. article.
“We wanted to work with a local garden,” Pham said in a Nov. 23 interview with Oracle. “Honours has a garden at his college, so we wanted to work with them to see if Bulls could provide a table for the market and a bigger platform.”
Food composting is a natural way to recycle food and reuse nutrients as soil.by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the aerobic process can be done quickly at home by setting aside bins to dispose of compostable products, and is a highly efficient way to reduce waste while coping with climate change. am.
Given the quality of canteen food waste, composting the types of food served at Hub, Argos, and JP is not an immediate solution. According to the EPA, most foods contain oil, dairy, and meat, so cooking ingredients cannot be easily separated and disposed of properly.
According to the EPA, the main ingredients for composting are nitrogen and carbon rich products such as vegetables, coffee grounds, eggshells, dried leaves and brown sacks. In an interview with Oracle on Nov. 23, Pham said she and Pariam ran into the issue of the practicality of composting on campus while she and Pariam were having a meeting with her USF’s Sustainability Division. said.
“There were some challenges in implementing the food composting initiative for students,” says Pham. “There are a few things he needs to compost, which he probably can’t do in a year’s work.”
Instead, SG is focusing on recycling programs aimed at promoting accessibility around campus by expanding and monitoring the University’s partnership with Coca-Cola, or the “Waste-Free World” recycling initiative. is.
According to Oracle in 2022, the six “Reverse” vending machines located around the USF Tampa and St. Pete campuses can accept up to 900 plastic bottles and aluminum cans that are recycled every two weeks. articleFor each bottle and can donated for recycling, the USF Food Pantry will receive 5 cents for food donations, the article states.
But Pham said the biggest challenge with the recycling machines on both campuses is that students are still confused about where to find them.
“I’ve found that many people don’t know where they are and believe they can only put Coke products in,” Pham said.
Tampa students can access the machine from four locations: Cooper Hall, The Hub, Marshall Student Center, and Juniper-Poplar Hall. St. Pete Campus students can also find machines at the University Student Center and Bayboro/Davis Breezeway.