Composting methods lack transparency

When members of Boston University’s Environmental Student Organization toured the Charlestown Waste Management CORe facility in December, they were surprised to discover that BU’s compostable utensils were not being composted as they expected.

The backside of the utensils available at the George Sherman Union have the words “COMMERCIALLY COMPOSTABLE ONLY” on them, but ESO President Elizabeth Hannigan and treasurer Ben Atlas were among those who, during their tour, found that some of the utensils do not break down thoroughly enough to go through the entire composting process at the CORe facility.

“Students should know that they’re being lied to when there’s a sign on top of the compostable bins in the GSU that says that [the utensils] are compostable,” Hannigan said. “They might be compostable in other places, but they’re not actually being composted in this case.”

Lisa Tornatore, assistant director of Sustainability@BU, wrote in an email that the CORe facility, which accepts much of BU’s compost, “typically sorts out utensils and sends them to [a] waste-to-energy facility, regardless of the utensil’s compostability.” The rest of BU’s compost goes to compost farms.

Joel Dashnaw, a territory manager and sales representative at Save That Stuff, the waste disposal company that picks up BU’s compost six days a week, led the ESO’s tour of the facility.

Contradicting with Tornatore’s account of what happens to the compostable utensils, Dashnaw said Waste Management and Save That Stuff send organic and compostable materials to the CORe facility, where a machine breaks up the materials into small pieces, and the pieces are passed through a screen.

“There’s some amount of these single-use compostable eating ware items that make it through the screen, depending on how small they’re broken up into,” Dashnaw said. “But then there’s also some percentage of the material that doesn’t and is screened out as residual material.”

Dashnaw explained that plates and napkins are more likely to pass through the screen because they are made of softer materials. He said it is possible for utensils to be broken down, but that there is no way of knowing what percentage of composted utensils make it through.

“If [the utensils] break up a little bit and those pieces are of the right size and in the right orientation to pass through the screen, then some of that will pass through,” Dashnaw said.

Any material that does not pass through is deemed trash, sent to a waste-to-energy facility and incinerated with a cogeneration process to produce electricity, Dashnaw said.

Having not known this prior to their tour of the facility, members of the ESO were unsure whether or not BU Dining Services, BU Sustainability or other members of the BU community were aware that this was how the utensils are being processed.

“A lot of students don’t know that,” Atlas said. “We’re trying to tell students that maybe you should just use the metal [silverware] from the GSU so that you can put them back afterwards so [utensils] don’t end up being incinerated.”

Barbara Laverdiere, director of BU Dining Services, oversees the university’s entire dining program. She said she had not previously heard that the compostable utensils were not completely composted, and that BU Dining Services has put a lot of effort into researching which utensils would best serve the university.

“Some of the [utensils] that compost really quickly also melt too quickly in things like soup, or break too easily,” Laverdiere said. She later added, “We have tried so many products but were told by Save That Stuff that once the CORe facility was opened, this would no longer be an issue.”

In a follow-up email, after speaking with Dashnaw herself, Laverdiere said that continuing to use the current utensils at BU is the “best option available to us currently.” She added that the best choice for members of the BU community, though, is to use non-disposable silverware whenever possible.

Tornatore said consumers should continue to sort the compostable utensils in the compost bins “as the University continues to explore the best course of action.”

Several BU students said they believe sustainability efforts are important on university campuses, but that they know little about what happens to sorted compost or recycling after putting it in the bins.

Matt Casavant, a sophomore in the College of Engineering, said he assumed compostable utensils were melted down or reused and that he had no idea they were not being completely composted.

“That’s a little misleading,” Casavant said. “I would think compostable is to be … not treated like regular trash.”

College of Arts and Sciences senior Zoe Cervera said she could not imagine how a fork could get past a screen at all. She said she uses the compostable utensils because she is a “germaphobe,” but added that she would think about using silverware instead to make her eating practices more sustainable.

“We are killing our planet and we need everything that we can use to prevent that or at least slow down that process,” Cervera said.

Kurt Castro, a CAS freshman, said he believed the utensils were “compostable with an asterisk.” He said providing information to students about what happens to the utensils might lead them to use more silverware instead.

“I feel like there’s so much of an emphasis on sustainability,” Castro said. “If it says it’s going to be composted, I want to know that it’s going to be composted.”