GreenCycle

What is GreenCycle?

Welcome to GreenCycle, USF ST. Pete’s newest food waste management program!

The project seeks to divert food scraps and waste, created by consumers and food preparation, away from the landfill to a more sustainable method of use: compost.

Create a sustainable commercial composting enterprise that diverts food waste, provides job training and opportunities for students, produces high quality compost, and enhances USF St. Pete’s green campus philosophy!

This program is the product of a multi-partnership grant with The City of St. Pete, USDA, Duke Energy, and the Student Green Energy Fund, alongside the tireless efforts of the College of Arts and Science Associate Dean Dr. Susan Toler, Dr. John Osegovic, and Dr. James Ivey. This two year pilot program seeks to divert campus food waste from on site dining facilities and convert said waste into a marketable product of compost to donate and sell. The revenue from selling the compost will be even to the costs of operating the composter including salaries for student employees.

A lively bustling university campus, with dining areas, catering, and public events, produces a lot of food waste. Traditional methods of disposal, such as transporting to a landfill, produce tons of CO2 into the atmosphere as the food decays. Alternative options, such as donations to animal agriculture, is not feasible in St Pete due to relative lack of local agriculture, requiring hauling which would burn for fossil fuels. Composting is thus the best tool available solution for the unique challenges of this location. The EPA’s Wasted Food Scale for managing food waste in the region supports this.

Food wastes are to be collected from several on campus dining establishments and transported to an industrial composter on site. This feedstock will then be broken down into compost, which will be moved to a separate location to cure. Finished compost will be utilized on USF St. Petersburg campus, sold at the Saturday Morning Market, and donated to local farms in underprivileged communities right by the USF St. Pete campus. The result will be reduction in fertilizer application on campus, limit greenhouse gas emissions, and a healthier St. Pete.

GreenCycle will provide paid hands-on management opportunities for USF students in the ever growing field of sustainable waste diversion. The composter itself will become part of the USF infrastructure and will provide nutrient rich soil amendments for USFSP gardens and landscapes, with expansion to local businesses, gardens, and the general public. Using the composter will act towards closing the circle for USFSP’s food production by returning the waste to foster growth in plants.