Residential Compost Program

Create a zero-waste campus by composting food scraps and napkins where you live.  The Residential Compost Program helps to educate, inform, and catalyze a low-waste culture by supporting peer-to-peer education and easily accessible compost location spots across campus.

About the Program

Composting is available in all on-campus residential communities. Students and others living on campus can apply to become Compost Managers, leaders on-campus overseeing kitchen compost bins within their residential communities and who provide peer-to-peer education on composting practices, or learn how to compost correctly with a short residential compost certification.

Cornell’s compost facility, operated by Farm Services, turns 4,000 tons of organic waste annually into high quality compost. Instead of trucking the waste to a landfill, it is composted at a location just one mile from campus. Composting reduces the amount of waste generated at the University, and lessens the need for energy-intensive transportation. Finished compost provides a valuable resource for local agricultural and landscape plantings.

• Residential Compost Program diverted 10,070lbs of food waste in 2019
  Campus Sustainability Office, March 19, 2020
• Wasting Away: Student Managers Facilitate Dorm Composting
  Cornell Daily Sun, Feb 12, 2019

Visit the Cornell Sustainability Waste Map to find all on-campus composting locations.

Become a Compost Manager: Fall 2024 - Spring 2025

Our campus is able to provide composting in every residential community through a dedicated network of volunteers who coordinate the campus-wide program.  

Compost Managers empty compost bins weekly, work to reduce food waste contamination, and communicate with residential staff and the Campus Sustainability Office.  By working solo and in teams, Compost Managers maintain one compost bucket on a weekly basis and serve as educators within their community.  Compost Managers must attend one training session to learn their role and pick up their compost bucket.

Compost on Campus

Anyone living on-campus can compost in your residential community.

Ready, set, compost!  It's important to learn the rules about what can (and can't) be composted on campus.  When materials are improperly disposed of in a compost bin, the entire bucket goes to the landfill to prevent contamination.  Help us prevent waste contamination by taking a short residential composting course to learn why and how we compost.  You can find composting location on campus on the sustainability waste map.

Complete the residential compost certification

Live off-campus? Find Tompkins County’s compost drop spots for options in the local community. 


 

Residential Composting Resources

Get involved, spread the word! Browse this open-resource folder filled with stickers, signage, and badges to spread awareness for composting & effective waste management.

Residential Composter Resources Folder

Sample Materials