The Student Government Association’s Secretary of Sustainability, Alexia Perides, poses with a compost bin that sits between the W.E.B. Du Bois Library and the Integrated Learning Center. Perides, a junior, has been heavily involved in composting initiatives on campus since her freshman year– having even helped start a student-run composting initiative her freshman year. Some tips she gives to students to help reduce their waste is to bring reusable coffee cups to the campus cafes, properly dispose of your waste and to throw anything you are unsure of in the regular trash.

One of the initiatives Perides works on is Rack City Thrift. The program allows students to donate their clothes and have them be sold for cheap prices. This keeps the clothes out of landfills.

During an interview, Perides picks out a compostable cup from the trash and throws it into the trash can’s neighboring compost bin. Perides has become used to picking through trash from her time working with the student composting initiative her freshman and sophomore year. Properly disposing of compostable materials allows them to be broken down into soil instead of sitting in a landfill, according to Perides.

Studio Arts major, Olga Holmberg, sits inside her studio at a table she found on the street. Holmberg likes to fill her studio with pieces of furniture that would have ended up in a landfill. Many of her canvases are also repurposed materials that she either found or were given to her by other artists who were cleaning out their spaces.

UMass Junior, Sabrina Choa, holds up her reusable straw. As a sustainable food and farming major, she stays conscious of her waste and tries to reduce it as much as she can. One of the easiest ways she does this is bringing a reusable straw to Blue Wall instead of taking one of the compostable ones. While compostable materials are better for the environment, reusable materials still produce less waste.

To-go boxes are popular options at UMass dining areas such as Blue Wall. They aren’t great for the environment though if a student decides to use them when they eat-in. Deciding to use the plates and reusable silverware that is provided at dining areas allows you to reduce your waste. 

Students also can take their sustainable thinking to the Grab-n’-Go line. Bring a reusable bag instead of taking a paper bag saves one bag from ending up in a landfill. While the bags are compostable, many areas on campus lack a compost bin. This makes it inconvenient for students to properly dispose of their compostable materials and they usually find their way to a regular trash bin.

While inconvenient, students can start their own compost bag in their dorms. They can then bring these bags to their nearest compost bins. Advocates for composting on campus want more bins on campus, but the risk of introducing them is considered too high by the university. In order for a compost bin to be successful, students must know what is compostable. If too many things that aren’t compostable are thrown in a compost bin, then the bin is considered too contaminated to send to Martin’s Farm in Greenfield, Mass– where all of UMass’ compost is sent. Workers can then pick through the compost or toss it to a landfill if the batch it too contaminated.