School nurtures compost pile

The landscape crew at Covenant has begun composting Chartwells scraps to benefit the plant life around campus.

Rob Heiskill, landscape maintenance foreman, and BJ Bilbrey, the landscape projects foreman, have begun using raw fruit and vegetable parts that normally get thrown away, such as banana peels and apple cores, to build up their composting pile located near the grounds shop. The endeavor is meant to help reduce the amount of waste headed to the landfill while promoting the health of Covenant’s flowers, shrubs, and trees.

The compost mixture itself is made in a container of cinder blocks and pallets. “It is not a difficult process,” Heiskill said.         “Compost happens’ as they say…the stuff will compost on its own over a long period of time.” They are currently using 40 pounds of Chartwells waste a day.

Composting is part of a growing trend on college campuses toward going green. Such schools as Northland College in Wisconsin and Berea College in Kentucky have significant composting programs. According to Northland’s website, the school has saved tens of thousands of pounds worth of raw food scraps since beginning its composting program. The composting program at Berea not only processes 35 tons of food waste each year, but also provides “educational and research opportunities to students and the community,” according to the school’s website.

Heiskill believes this is the first effort made on Covenant’s campus to use food leftovers, but he says that Covenant has composted dead leaves from the campus and surrounding areas in the past. He is enthusiastic about the future of the enterprise.

“I see it as part of my responsibility in stewarding the earth. Leftover food scraps are not trash. When they break down, they are what makes the soil and plants and earth and ultimately us more healthy, so [this project] is very exciting.”