Growing up in a small towns I have never had much opportunity to compost because of the wildlife and dangers surrounding that. But now living in Calgary I have the opportunity to compost! But only in certain parts of the University…

Throughout campus there are tons of garbage and recycling bins, and in Mac Hall and the DC they have compost bins. Which is really helpful and obviously really good for the environment. However something that the university doesn’t have is compost bins in the Residence buildings. This is becoming quite frustrating the more I am learning about food waste. With our final project I know that Calgary has a really great composting facility, and that Canada wastes about $31 Billion a year in food waste. And because of my eating habits, and where I am eating I am only using compost maybe 30% of the time.

At the DC, which is where I buy the majority of my meals, they have compostable take home containers, cutlery and napkins, as well as reusable containers. The compostable containers are great because the majority of my meals are eaten in my room. But of course, once I’m done my meal, like many of the people on my floor we just throw out the containers, and cutlery and food that is uneaten into the trash because there isn’t anywhere else to put it.

Below is a photo of the instructions placed in the DC to show what can be composted. And I can sadly say that so far in residence I have thrown out every item shown in the photo, at least once.