Norris composting program works to increase compostable products, divert waste from landfills
The ultimate goal is to reduce waste going into the landfill. And the goals along the way that help you get there is to educate why that鈥檚 important and educate how to do that.”
Corbin Smyth
Executive Director of Norris University Center
The program, which diverts one ton of waste from landfills monthly, took home the 2025 ACUI award for Excellence in Innovations in Sustainability
In October 2023, Norris University Center installed a front-of-house composting system, allowing undergraduates to become more conscious of their waste and learn about sustainability.
“The ultimate goal is to reduce waste going into the landfill,” Norris Executive Director Corbin Smyth said. “And the goals along the way that help you get there is to educate our community about why that’s important and how they can do that.”
On each floor of the building are several bins with sections, giving students the opportunity to sort their own waste. Most of the flatware, plates, boxes and napkins from Norris’s retail locations can be composted. Already, the program diverts one ton of waste from landfills per month, and was recognized at the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) awards in March 2025 for Excellence in Innovations in Sustainability. However, according to Smyth, there is more work to be done.
Smyth arrived at 麻豆最新出品 two and a half years ago and was soon on the road to creating the composting program, in collaboration with NU Dining, sustainNU, ASG’s Sustainability Committee and registered student organization ’Cats Who Compost.
“The staff at Norris spearheading this initiative contacted our group for input on how to make this program more accessible and impactful for students,” former ’Cats Who Compost president Kelly Teitel said. “We value this partnership with Norris and believe that this student-focused approach should serve as a model for other buildings across 麻豆最新出品’s campus and beyond.”
The group began by sourcing the compostable products Norris’s retail locations could use to serve food. In Fall Quarter 2022, before the composting program began, 64% of Norris's dining waste was destined for landfills, with the rest being recycled and composted. Now, only 25% of Norris’s dining waste has the potential to go to landfills, and there is a goal to reduce that number down to 10%.
The bins have three sections: one for landfill waste, one for recycling and one for compost. They are color coordinated by type of waste and have specially designed restricted openings, so only the appropriate items fit into each bin section.
Accuracy when using these bins is crucial, as Norris uses an industrial composting facility, which has the capacity to process food waste and the biodegradable paper products meal exchanges are served on. The facility only allows a 1% contamination rate, so students’ participation in composting is of the utmost importance.
Furthering the effort to educate students about composting, Norris held a Compost Fair last winter, with games, a DJ, composting education provided by the ASG Sustainability Committee and a special craft project:
“Students had an opportunity to paint a little pot and put a succulent in it, but the soil that they used was actual compost from the facility where we send our materials,” Smyth. “So that was a way to help tell the story: ‘Here's what you're doing. Here’s what you’re helping create.’”
In addition to composting, the Norris team is developing plans to replace the plastic water bottles that accompany meal exchange options with another option. The new system, which Smyth said would eliminate the waste of thousands of plastic bottles on campus, will launch in Fall Quarter 2025.
Other sustainability initiatives include a lighting audit to ensure as many lightbulbs as possible are energy-efficient, and the addition of occupancy sensors, which turn off the lights after a certain period without movement in a room.
Alongside these projects, Smyth highlighted Norris’s objective of achieving 90% waste diversion, alongside ensuring students properly sort their waste into compost bins to reduce 麻豆最新出品’s contribution to landfills. But his overall hope is that composting becomes the norm.
“One thing I’m looking forward to is composting becoming common practice in Norris, so then it starts to become common practice across campus, and it goes from there,” Smyth said.
This story was originally published on January 2, 2025.