PCC’s Rock Creek campus is becoming Washington County’s demonstration site for sustainable practices through a grant from DEQ. The Waste Reduction Program is currently three fold: reduce our use of paper, increase recycling, and compost the cafeteria food waste.

An education campaign on wise paper usage will begin this fall. Increased recycling will happen with the campus’s move toward waste/recycle stations. These are single units that house garbage and recycling together, thus making it easier for our campus community to deposit waste and recycling at a single location. Finally, a vermicomposting system has been set up at the farm. The cafeteria’s pre-consumer and some post-consumer food waste is taken to the vermicomposting bin where the worms accelerate the decomposition process.

 The worm’s byproduct is very high in nutrients and will be used in Rock Creek’s organic garden. Produce from the garden goes to the cafeteria and members of the Organic Gardening Group (OGG). Food scraps generated from our cafeteria go back to the worms. All this creates a loop with  significant waste reduction.

The purpose of waste reduction at Rock Creek is to lessen what goes into the landfill - thus reducing carbon emissions from transporting the waste as well as reducing methane gas from the slow decomposition process that occurs at a landfill. Carbon Dioxide and Methane are both greenhouse gasses contributing to global warming.

The goal is to get to a 50% reduction in waste as soon as possible, then eventually to zero waste. This is achievable, but only through a team effort of the entire campus community.

1.      Participating in the vermicomposting system – collecting food waste from the cafeteria, feeding and watering the worms, checking pH, hauling worm castings to the garden, etc.

2.      Be a member of a waste sort team where we analyze the campus’s garbage.

3.      Assist with education efforts on campus, including the “Loop Group”. This group is involved in both the “Land of OGG (Organic Gardening Group)” and the Worm Composting club.

4.      Help maintain the compost heaps.

5.      Help facilitate recycling contests on campus.

6.      And More!