Pfoho To Begin Food Composting

Despite lacking the latest equipment, Pforzheimer Dining Hall will soon join Annenberg and several other House dining halls in daily composting.

Pforzheimer, one of five Houses that does not have a compacting machine, is starting a pilot program in the next few days that will test the efficacy of manual composting.

Composting, in which dining hall food waste is reused as fertilizer, is one prong of the University’s efforts to be more environmentally friendly, according to the Harvard University Dining Services Web site.

Crista Martin, HUDS director of marketing and communications, said that the Quad Houses are behind in their composting efforts because of outdated technology.

“When the Quad was originally renovated, composting was in its infancy,” she said. “They were not able to incorporate composting in their dish rooms then, and they still have not been able because of structural reasons and space.”

Eliot, Leverett and the Quad houses do not have Somat food waste pulpers, which grind excess food down automatically.

In order to start composting manually, Pforzheimer dining hall workers will set food waste aside in yellow composting barrels without having the waste grinded.

Food waste to be composted—either made into pulp by machine or manually collected—is bagged and put into marked barrels, from which it is picked up by local waste management companies.

Martin explained that Pforzheimer was chosen for the manual composting pilot program because it had a loading dock and showed interest in the project.

“It’s a place where all the elements come together,” she said.

Robert V. Fitzsimmons ’10, the Pforzheimer House Food Literacy Project representative, hosted a special brain break to spread composting awareness on March 20.

“We’ve noticed in the past that people aren’t aware of what HUDS is doing as far as sustainability goes,” he said. “Pfoho has been behind, but we’re going to catch up.”

Martin said that HUDS currently composts 26,500 pounds of food waste in an average week.

Pforzheimer dining hall staff are awaiting the delivery of the composting barrels to start the pilot program.

The success of Pforzheimer’s project will determine whether or not manual composting will be implemented in the other four houses that lack a pulping machine.

Martin said she was unsure of when composting would be implemented in those Houses.

“We want to do our homework right,” she said. “We’re constantly looking at equipment that is available.”

—Staff writer Carola A. Cintron-Arroyo can be reached at ccintron@fas.harvard.edu.