Compost Team

Welcome all composters and future composters! We are the Compost Team; we are on a mission to expand composting on Iowa State's campus and engage students and faculty to actively pursue a more sustainable life through interactive workshops. We are constantly working on new ways to make compost accessible to all people on Iowa State's campus and are always looking for people to join our mission! Please reach out to the Compost Team Leader to see how you can get involved! 

New Freddy Distibution Method


Welcome back everybody! Its been about a year since my last post here, but once again we have re-launched the composting program at Frederiksen Court.

I'm happy to announce that now sign-up and bucket distribution can be done throughout the semester the the hall desk in the Hawthorn community center. All you have to do to sign up is show up during open hours, fill out the form, and receive a bucket!

I'd also like to ask everyone to be conscious about what they are putting in the compost dumpsters, as we have a huge problem with contamination. Spread the word to your friends, and lets compost together!

Posted 2022-10-10 18:39:53 by Andrew Frank

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Composting on Campus

Some big talk has been happening about bringing composting bins to campus. This has long been a dream for many Iowa State students, but challenges such as placement, contamination, and who is responsible for the collection has prevented organics recycling from being available on our campus. This Friday, the compost team will be meeting with a representative for the University of Minnesota organics recycling program. At UMN, there are organics bins scattered in various buildings and we are going to learn more about how a their program functions.

Posted 2022-10-10 18:42:08 by Andrew Frank

Freddy Court Distribution!

Hello everyone and welcome to the new semester!
This Friday and Saturday we are distributing compost containers at Frederiksen Court to kick of the composting program here for the year. The advertising efforts beforehand did not go quite as planned, but we will be sending out information continuously and plan to make sign-up available on a continuous basis during the year.

After distribution, there are a few different things we may be working on:

  • Expanding the compost program to SUV
  • Vermicomposting display at Reiman Gardens (+ field trip?)
  • Indoor compost research
  • Sustainability workshops with ESW!

    I'll try to post updates on what's going on, so stay tuned!

    • Posted 2021-10-02 16:12:24 by Andrew Frank

    History is Made at Iowa State with the Freddy Court Compost System!

    No matter how you found us, I'm glad you're here! I'm Carissa Moyna, the Compost Team leader, and here to share some historic news with you. As of September 5th, 2020 history was made at Iowa State with the start of the first residential compost system on Iowa State's campus.! If you are unfamiliar with the history of composting at Iowa State, I'll give you a quick briefing. In 2008, looking for an alternative for dairy manure at the research dairy barns off campus, Iowa State invested in building a Compost facility 2 miles off campus. Steve Jonas became the Compost facility manager and for a few years it was only accepting dairy manure as its feedstock. The facility began to accept natural waste from campus and eventually began accepting food waste from the two major dining centers on campus, UDCC and Seasons. The Compost Facility now is also accepting food waste from Friley Windows as well. 


    Looking to utilize this amazing facility more places on campus, the Compost Team in Spring 2019 began to investigate where we could implement a new compost system. The team decided on Freddy Court because apartment complexes proved to have more food waste than dorm rooms as shown by the work of Halla Shafer's Honors Capstone Project. Her project involved conducting a waste audit of various dumpsters around campus, and she found that dorms produced only 7% food waste while apartments produced 33%. This statistic along with the eagerness to support a system by Freddy Council, the governing body of Freddy Court, the Compost Team moved ahead to plan the system. 

    I could go on about this project for days, but to keep this short and sweet for you readers I will briefly inform you about the trial and then speak about the full-scale system we have today. Spring semester 2019 involved getting the approval of Facilities Planning and Management (FP&M) which was met with strong support and conducting a trial system to assess the feasibility of a full-scale system. The Compost Team invited Freddy Court residents to participate and 60 people signed up. Fun fact: the team also obtained yogurt containers from ISU Dining for the participants' compost buckets which incorporated another aspect of sustainability into the trial. The residents then were responsible for dumping their compost buckets into the one 3 yard compost dumpster outside. The trial was quite successful with 87 students in total utilizing the system (as participants' roommates began to use their compost buckets) and 160 pounds of food waste was diverted from the landfill in 4 weeks. This trial helped us to analyze how we could make the system better by putting locks on the dumpsters to avoid trash contamination and needing more dumpsters to increase the convenience for students walking across Freddy Court to empty their food waste. Upon sharing these results with Freddy Council and FP&M, the compost system was approved to be scaled up, whooo!

    The 2019-2020 school year involved a massive planning effort for funding, buying materials, and preparing for initiating the full-scale compost system starting in Fall 2020. Covid-19 didn't slow the group down and we continued to meet during online classes. The scaled-up system consists of five compost dumpsters spaced throughout Freddy Court and we bought 100 3.5 gallon black buckets and lids which serve as apartments' compost bucket. We also designed a Compost Guide list to explain what can and can't be composted at Iowa State's compost facility as well as a map showing where the composter dumpsters are located. There of course has to be some fun perks that come along with composting, so we also designed Soil Squad stickers to be placed on participants' doors and water bottles or computers. 

    With all our materials in hand and August rapidly approaching, the decided to turn our Compost Information Meeting for Freddy Court residents online due to Covid-19 which occurred the second week of classes and planned for our Compost Bucket Distribution Days to be outside for two days. The information meeting was well attended and we had a high success rate with ensuring everyone who filled out their compost agreement form received their bucket and perks at Compost Bucket Distribution Days. The second day of Compost Distribution Days flew by with beautiful weather and this day marked the official start of the Freddy Court Compost System! Wow, what an incredible achievement! I have to give a huge shoutout to my Compost Team, FP&M, Rich Garrey, Todd Wilson, Buffalo Burns, and LiveGreen supporters, Ayo and Merry! It could not have been done without their support and crazy that we have 105 people participating so far in the Compost System! Also check out our specific page for Freddy Court composting on this website if you'd like to see more on what we are doing. Now...we are on to planning fun workshops for the composters and monitoring the dumpsters to ensure no trash contamination! Small stuff if you ask me. :) 

    Posted 2020-10-11 00:26:03 by Carissa Moyna