Composting Guidelines

What:

All COMPOSTABLE material.  All food (preconsumer "food prep scraps" or post consumer "place scrapings") including meat and dairy. Almost all products purchased at LCC food services are compostable: plates, hot and cold coffee cups and lids, hot cup jackets, stir sticks, forks, knives, spoons, condiment cups and lids, clear sandwich and salad containers, soup cups, chopsticks, soda cups and lids, straws, Asian "to go" boxes, miscellaneous paper.

Where:

There are two ways for students, staff, and faculty to compost.  

The primary place to compost material is in the cafeteria on the first level of the Center Building.  In the cafeteria are bins for compost, along with bins for container recycling and landfill.

The other way for departments to compost is by participating in the Green Office Certification Program or by requesting a compost bucket from Recycling.  The departmental compost bucket requires that participants deliver the full bucket to the Recycling Center and pickup an clean, empty one.  To learn more about composting in your office, click here to download a .pdf of the program description.

How?

Please place the appropriate material in the compost bin.  In some cases you may have to physically separate non-compostable material from compostable material.  In general, every piece of service ware from the LCC cafeteria can be placed in the compost bin.  If you bring your food from off campus dining establishments, please make sure the service ware or coffee cup is labeled as COMPOSTABLE.  It will usually be indicated on the bottom of the container.  Most non-compostable service ware looks exactly like compostable service ware.  Due to the way the compsotables are processed by our vendor, very little contaminants (non-compostable material) are allowed.  If you are in doubt, ask the establishment where you bought the food, contact Recycling Services, or discard it.

Want to know more about composting at Lane and about composting as a waste management strategy?

Please click here to go to Lane's composting page.