This piece is part of a Senior Integrated Project (SIP) written by Madeline Moss K’26. We’re sharing it here in an effort to encourage our student body to submit their own sustainability-related pieces. You never know, you just might be featured in the ESC newsletter!
On a damp October afternoon, the Grove at Kalamazoo College hums murmurs with the sounds of trees rustling and the soft crunch of tires. Two deer grazes near the forested edge as a small green Gator pulls up in the forested area between the Living Learning House and the Arcus Center for Social Justice. At the wheel, Josephine Belsky ‘28, dressed in a light sweater, cargo pants, and Converse; beside her sits Cherry Acosta ‘26 in an oversized sweatshirt. Belsky parks the Gator in front of the shed, and Acosta hops out to begin unloading the buckets, marked by the scent of decaying food. Inside the buckets is part of something alive again: food waste being diverted from the landfill back into soil.
Tucked into a quiet corner of campus, Kalamazoo College’s composting program operates as a student-led initiative supported by the Larry J. Bell ‘80 Environmental Stewardship Center (ESC) and Facilities Management. A team of five students manages the program throughout the academic year, overseeing food-waste collection and engaging the campus community in composting practices, and typically teaching the Physical Education composting course offered in the fall and spring. Each crew member dedicates three to seven hours per week.
Acosta, who joined the program in fall 2023, traces their interest back to childhood. “I was a worm kid. I loved worms as a kid,” they said. “Then composting came along, it was through a friend sort of, and they introduced me to it, and I have been doing it since.”
For Belsky, who joined the crew in spring 2025, describes her motivation as rooted in environmental stewardship that is rooted in everyday responsibility. “Change really starts in the small things, and composting is one of those essential processes that get overlooked or just narrowed down to be ‘just for gardens’ or something,” she said. “It’s really a beautiful process of giving back to the land that sustains us and choosing not to be wasteful with what the Earth provides.”
She hopes that this deliberate, hands-on work has a lasting impact. “Maybe at least a few people leave here knowing that a better way exists and maybe they’ll tell a few more people and so on. It’s the little changes and someone has to make them.”
Composting is the natural process in which microorganisms break down organic materials such as food scraps, leaves, and yard trimmings into nutrient-rich soil additives. This process transforms what would otherwise be landfill waste into a valuable resource that supports soil health, improves water retention, and enhances fertility. The process of composting helps close the loop in the food and waste systems. Through diverting these materials through composting, it helps cut down on the reliance of chemical fertilizers that contribute to potential water pollution, damages ecosystems and harms organisms, and releases greenhouse gases.
The five-person composting crew divides routes across campus, collecting food waste from various offices, cafes, and living spaces. Each pair is assigned a specific route and day, completing collections once a week.
Once the buckets reach the Grove, the work begins. Belsky, Acosta, and Miyani Sonera ‘27 get to work. Acosta inserts two compost-specific thermometers into the center of the active pile the crew is working on this trimester which contains freshly added food waste. Designed for dense compost systems, the heavy-duty thermometers feature extended probes and color-coded zones that signify the pile’s internal activity and temperature.
Composting piles are categorized by active and inactive states. As microbes break down the food scraps, they release heat which helps break down the compost. The ideal microbial activity occurs between 80 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit; indicating an active, decomposing pile. Cooler temperatures slow down decomposition, while excessively high temperatures can kill the microbes that aid in decomposition.
Today’s readings were 84 and 75 degrees, averaging around 80, placing it on the lower end of the active range. As autumn temperatures dip, the pile mirrors the season. As the pile gets tempted, Sonera and Belsky fall into routine. One by one, they unload the buckets from the back of the Gator. Belsky hooks a bucket onto the hanging produce scale and adds it up in her calculator app on her phone. Once the weight is noted, Sonera tips the contents of the bucket onto an orange chopping board beside the scale. On this day, they tallied 17 buckets, totaling 124.5 pounds of food waste.
Since its founding in 2009, the composting program has evolved from a modest dining hall waste experiment into a campus-wide effort that now diverts thousands of pounds of food waste from landfills each year. The initiative was begun by Rob Townsend, a Facilities Management emeritus staff member who had been active in the campus recycling program. What started with dining hall scraps sent to a local pig farm, has expanded into on-campus composting and industrial-scale composting processed through My Green Michigan.
With the transition of leadership in Facilities Management coupled with the establishment of the Environmental Stewardship Center in 2019, the composting program entered a period of reevaluation. During that time, a student project explored the future of composting, weighing the possibility of an on-site, in-vessel system. However, a system such as this would require electricity, water, and space. The alternative of partnering with an external vendor, such as My Green Michigan, would better suit the Kalamazoo College campus.
In its early years, the program tested “Earth Tubs” which were eight-foot composting vessels that were introduced in 2012. While it was a successful way to process large quantities of food waste, the challenges persisted with odor, runoff, and mechanical failures led to their eventual retirement in 2018. After a two-year pause, the college restructured its approach, partnering with My Green Michigan, an organic collection company outside of Lansing, Mich. Their large-scale operations can handle materials like meat, dairy, and compostable disposables that the Grove’s system cannot process because of the specific requirements needed to process them. By diverting these materials from landfills, composting plays a critical role in reducing food waste and minimizing its environmental impact.
The harsh reality is that food waste in the United States is a significant and persistent problem. According to Feeding America, an estimated 92 billion pounds of food is discarded every year, a staggering amount that has a wide range of environmental impacts. Composting provides one practical way to address a small portion of that waste.
On campus, community members can compost bread, grains, fruits, vegetables, teabags and coffee grounds, unbleached coffee filters, and unbleached napkins. In the 2023-2024 academic year, the Grove processed 6,883 pounds of food waste, increasing to 8,299 pounds the following year. The program’s impact extends beyond the weight of material diverted from the landfill. Its effects are visible in campus growing spaces such as the Hoop House and the Jolly Garden, which supports hands-on opportunities, provides fresh produce, and hosts various projects. When the finished compost is not used in the growing spaces, it is made available to the wider campus community.
Through the industrial composting partnership, the impact of composting stretches beyond the Grove. During the 2023-2024 academic year, the program diverted 263,796 pounds of food waste, increasing to 327,962 pounds the following year. The increase is substantial, but it raises an important question: does this change reflect more food waste being produced, or more being diverted from landfills?
“It’s really hard to know,” said Sara Stockwood, Director of the Environment Stewardship Center. “I want to say greater efforts [are being made to compost].” She notes that convenience plays a major role in participation. “You have to get a bucket, fill it, and bring it back,” she said of the campus-wide compost program. “Versus if you’re in the Caf and you have leftover food, it’s really easy to just throw it in the compost can—so it’s already part of your process.”
While on-campus composting operates at a much smaller scale than industrial systems, its value lies in education rather than volume alone. The Grove’s compost system gives students hands-on experience with decomposition, soil health, and nutrient cycling. This allows them to engage directly with the processes behind sustainable food systems. By interacting with compost on campus, students see food waste as not an abstract environmental issue, but as something directly in front of them, giving them real stakes within the matter.
In this way, Kalamazoo College’s on-site composting and its partnership with My Green Michigan are complementary rather than unnecessary. The industrial program ensures that large quantities of organic waste are responsibly processed, while the Grove serves as a living classroom with its core goals of sustainable work through education and experimentation.
The industrial composting initiative also prompts questions about its environmental trade-offs, particularly regarding transportation. The collected materials are hauled twice weekly to Lansing, roughly 80 miles away. Stockwood acknowledged the concerns but said the overall impact remains positive. “It was worthwhile to do that versus having that [the food waste] going into a landfill,” she said. “The effects were better to participate in the vehicle driving. I know [My Green Michigan does] pick up from Bell’s Eccentric Cafe, HopCat, and maybe a few other places. They are coming [to Kalamazoo] anyways.”
Back at the Grove, Sonera pours another bucket onto the chopping block as Belsky retrieves the choppers from the shed. These long-handled blades are used to break the food waste into smaller pieces “It helps create more surface area,” Acosta said. “That way, the microbes can do their jobs faster.” The chopping step of composting is the most physical and sometimes, the messiest part of the job.
Today’s mix is heavy on produce: apples, oranges, kiwis, onions, potatoes, cauliflower, peppers, banana peels. There are some eggshells and lettuce leaves, too. The Book Club Cafe’s five buckets of coffee grounds add a welcome balance to the pile’s acidity while helping its smell.
But not everything on the block belongs. Inside one bucket, Sonera finds two “compostable” single-use containers. Despite their labeling, they’re designed for commercial composting, not the smaller-scale system they manage. With a sigh, Belsky grabs a gardening glove and plucks them out by hand. “Sometimes it is frustrating, but not frustrating because people put compostable disposable stuff like bags. And those are only compostable commercially, and we don’t have the size or skill for that,” Belsky said. “We pick it out and put it in the right [place] for people. We’ll put it in designated bins to be sorted later.”
After the offending items are fished out of the pile, Sonera and Belsky continue chop up the compost before it gets added to the active compost pile. This is one of their favorite parts of being on the crew. They get to see what people were eating and make guesses of what some of the items once were.
An example of what community members put into the bins comes from Ruby Winer ‘26 who has been composting with her housemates since winter 2025, “we compost pretty much all big food scraps. Egg shells, apple cores, banana peels, veggie/fruit scraps are the main things that we compost.”
For Winer, the system has been a small shift in her routine but knows her impact is meaningful. “The food scraps could sit in a landfill somewhere, or they could be used to create better soil for more plants going forward,” she said. “Because it was made so easy for us to do as a house, through K’s composting program, we were able to actually do it, instead of just knowing it’s a good thing to do.”
Composting did not become a conscious environmental choice for Zoe Allen ‘28 but rather a practical shift tied to daily life. When she moved out of the dorms and had a kitchen, composting naturally became a part of her routine. “I have been composting all of this year because I’ve been living in a house and making my own food waste,” she said. “Last year, living in a dorm, I did not compost.”
What ends up in Allen’s compost is mostly produce that has gone bad or is leftover. While composting might be new to her college routine, Allen noted that the practice is not unfamiliar, “My parents have composted my whole life, so it is something I’m very used to.” But now that she partakes it in, she feels inspired because, “I believe that there’s a lot of waste in the world that goes to dumpsters and landfills and that composting is a way to separate harmful waste from waste that can be beneficial again to the earth and can make healthier soil.”
Once the food is chopped down to size, Belsky opens the active pile of compost. Using a large pitchfork, Belsky moves aside the warm, decomposing center to make room for new material. Steam arises as she moves the pile. Then Sonera uses a shovel and begins to scoop up the chopped food waste and adds it into the middle.
An important part of composting is maintaining the proper balance between “greens” and “browns.” Greens being food waste that is rich in nitrogen, and browns being packed with carbon such as dried leaves or sawdust. In the past, the crew sourced sawdust from the Fine Arts Building’s set productions to help preserve this three-one green-to-brown ratio. Facilities Management also contributes by filling the leaf bins at the entrance of the Grove before giving any excess to the City of Kalamazoo. As Belsky said, “that’s another way we’re maintaining the aesthetic of campus, but we’re not putting leaves in the landfill.” The brown part is crucial to helping sustaining moisture, bringing in carbon, and balancing the pH levels.
Over the next two months, food waste will naturally heat up as bacteria break down organic matter, which releases energy in a series of exothermic reactions. When the pile’s internal temperature eventually drops below 80 degrees, it enters a “curing” stage where it is inactive. Meaning that it still turned several times per week to conserve airflow and allow for the end of decomposition to finish. The compost is ready when it looks and smells like soil would: dark, crumbly, and earthy scent, and has no lingering heat.
After layering and turning the pile, the Belsky closes the pile up, while Sonera stacks the bucket up so they can be cleaned during their next shift. In recent years, the composting crew has made deliberate efforts to improve organization and continuity. In the program’s earlier days, compost bins were mismatched assortment, everything from reused kitty litter containers to random collected buckets. Without consistent labels, the system was confusing for those trying to participate. The shift to a standardized green bucket helped make them identifiable with clear labeling, thus helping to streamline the process.
Looking ahead, the Environment Stewardship Center (ESC) is working with Parkhurst Dining to make all single-use disposable items fully industrially compostable. Once Parkhurst completes its transition as the new dining provider, the goal is to integrate industrial compost bins into campus events and dining spaces, treating compost collection with the same consistency as trash and recycling so that all material reliably reaches My Green Michigan’s facilities.
The ESC is currently piloting a collapsible three-bin sorting system: compost, recycling, and trash; made from recycled cardboard, with plans to add labeling. Stockwood hopes this model will eventually be adopted for catered events, creating a streamlined system in which “everything laid out is compostable,” reducing confusion and preventing contamination that could jeopardize the composting contract with My Green Michigan, which flags if too many non-compostable items are in a load.
Eventually, the vision is a campus culture where composting becomes second nature. First-year students arrive at systems that already work; sorting food waste becomes routine in the cafeteria, and students grow comfortable participating in both industrial and on-site composting programs. “The goals are always the same,” Stockwood said. “How can we capture and divert more from landfill to composting? Part of that is reducing waste, but it’s also about building a campus where everyone has the opportunity and the knowledge to take part.”
The compost buckets are stored on two shelves next to the sturdy shed, which houses tools and provides protection from Michigan’s harsh winters. The shed is a relatively recent addition. Before it, a makeshift lean-to shelter offered temporary protection for the compost during the colder months. However, as the program expanded, the storage system needed an upgrade. The weatherproof, closable shed, and shelving unit not only protects the buckets from the elements but streamlines their organization with the left side being for “bucket drop-off” and right-side having upside down clean compost bins “bucket pick-up.” Previously, the buckets of compost sat directly on the ground and without clear signage, it could be confusing for community members to know how to participate. This new setup makes it easier for everyone to contribute, ensuring that the process is both accessible and efficient.
Wednesdays and Fridays are bucket washing days for the crew in the Facilities Management parking lot. Each pair of crew members wash about 20-25 buckets per shift. The regular washing prevents odors and pests. Belsky said, “we don’t want to have to deal with super icky gross foods, so we try and wash them out every other day.”
On a cold Wednesday afternoon, the Gator’s bed is stacked high with around two dozen dirty buckets. Belsky drives behind Hicks, then she navigates the bumps of Academy Street’s iconic red bricks, turning the wheel carefully to keep the buckets from tumbling as she turns into the Facilities Management parking lot. She pulls into the garage, and Acosta hauls out the power washer while Belsky sheds her jacket and begins unloading the buckets.
The cleaning process is methodical. The pair begins the washing process by separating the buckets and lids and laying them out into two different piles. As Acosta rinses the buckets with the power washer, splashing out leftover scraps and pouring the rinsed water over a metal grate that catches any stray pieces. The tougher residue gets a blast from the power washer’s narrow nozzle. Belsky is bent over scrubbing each bucket with a scouring brush. Once the inside and outside of the buckets are cleaned, they repeat the process with the lids.
In the background, Acosta is playing a quiet playlist from their phone, while the pair chat about their days and talk about what classes they are going to register for next term. The air smells faintly of peppermint soap, cutting through any traces of decomposing food.
After a few splashes of cold water and numb fingers, they washed 22 buckets today. Carefully, they stack the clean buckets and load them onto the Gator. At the Grove, the freshly washed buckets are lined up in neat rows, ready for their next cycle.
Environmental Stewardship Center
Subscribe to receive posts about the ESC, academics, student projects and events directly to your inbox!
