750 lbs. of Choice
With a strong focus on fundamentals, the Sierra Club is giving you a savory option for your stinky waste.
Dan Breit standing on left, Robin Nelson standing right (photo by author)
Tonight at the SDSU Global Studies Club meeting in the Student Union Dan Breit and Robin Nelson from the Sierra Club spoke about the absurd amount of discharge coming from this University…and no I’m not talking about our King Kong coal monster (‘nother story).
Dan and Robin, accompanied by the President of the Sierra Club – Kayla Miller (seen above left of Dan), introduced a worthy idea as well as the projected cultural hurdles associated with it.
The topic of tonight’s discussion: compost. These Sierra Club representatives gave a persuasive speech about the large amounts of waste our 3 commons’ (Larson, Medary and the SU) shed at the end of even one day. Did you know that these three locations combined toss out 750 lbs. of waste which could otherwise be turned into nutritious compost for our own agrarian communal benefit? Well, they do, and you can help.
They also introduced the issue of trying to get AT LEAST one compost recycling unit, i.e. an Earth Tub, on our campus. These Earth Tubs are capable of recycling 300 lbs. of waste into compost which would otherwise be sitting in our landfill benefiting no one. With the addition of something like these Earth Tubs our school could benefit the community and us as global citizens in a sustainable manner.
Dan and Robin were quite specific with their target audience in their presentation. The current main focus for this project are the Food Service departments on campus. These departments will be the areas in need of training, encouragement and persuasion most when changes like these occur. Starting the intense cultural overhaul of choosing between a garbage receptacle and a compost receptacle will be most effective if all the bases (Food Services) are convinced first.
Dan stressed the fact that it is ingrained, and even stressed, in our culture to not diverge from the path. Doing things the way they’ve been done for so long can make change a scary prospect. And, he’s right. As a society who has needed necessary evils such as excessive waste for our own existence, growth and development doing things a little differently is almost on par with blasphemy. However, sometimes it takes a little change to make the good times really worth it.
With support from you and I, the Sierra Club will be able to see sustainable ideas like these come to fruition.
For donation information, getting involved information or just a chit chat contact Clark Young at: clarkyoung8@gmail.com or visit the Sierra Club’s Facebook page.
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Giant tubs of rotting waste aren’t going to look good on Friday Freshman tours. I’m all for this, but we’ve got a long, tedious battle ahead of us here.
Brian, you’ve got the lbeiral’s tactics down pat. If you want to see the spin machine in full rinse cycle go to http://www.airamericaplace.com and view their ‘blog’. It basically (what I believe to be) three or four paid shills defending AAR. They have no facts to counter a single critic. It’s pathetic really.
Community compost sources are also kind of sketchy from the perspective of responsible gardening because it’s hard to regulate what’s going into the compost – so it may be heavily imbalanced or contain toxins, heavy metals, etc. I don’t want Danny Batten’s stick of Old Spice and the oil from Helen’s omelette factory being taken up into my green beans. Just sayin.
Both very good points and both brought up in the discussion yesterday.
These containers probably would not be the most aesthetic parts of campus, however, in my opinion, the idea of recycling would, or should, mask the potential smells. Change must start somewhere, and no one said it would be easy…or that it would not smell of week old burritos.
As for what is discharged into these containers, cuneiform:ation, you are right. It would not be very safe for just anything to fall into these bins. As per usual green hurdles, creativity must accompany public acceptance.
But hey, it’s a start.
I read the comiunmty center went under and now there’s no there, there, so they can’t return the money. Anyone know if this is true?
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