UNBC keeps calling itself a green university but what about the food waste that has been going to the landfill? The University is sending 70% of its food waste (Mullen et al, n.d.) so, it is implied that the food waste goes to the Prince George landfill and therefore adding in increments greenhouse gas emissions and supporting global warming. UNBC has been operating in partnership with Prince George Public Interest and Research Group (PGPIRG) to divert food waste since 1995 (Timms et al. 2018). Also, “PGPIRG is a student-directed, student-funded non-profit organization based at UNBC” (PGPIRG 1995). PGPIRG would recruit volunteers every semester, and the participants would collect, empty, and clean the compost bins (Timms et al. 2018). PGPIRG, also revealed that the finished compost product was used at the UNBC’s gardens and flower beds. However, it was PGPIRG who took the responsibility from the inception to maintain the compost program running at UNBC. On the other hand, the University never took governorship and leadership to oversee a compost program. Further, winter 2019, PGPIRG announced that they would stop running the compost program at UNBC (Timms et al. 2018). One reason was because PGPIRG is a small research group, and they rely mainly on volunteers. And second, the quantity of food waste had increased over the years and not everything could be used at the UNBC’s gardens and flower beds (Timms et al. 2018). What is composting and why it is so important? Composting is when you keep your food waste, and anything that is grown in soil or water separate from your garbage. Afterwards, this food waste or organic matter is mixed with soil to increase the production in plants (Hu 2020). And now why should I sort and care about recycling food waste? The best answer I can give you is because we are all in this together: on this earth, we only exist because we are protecting the environment, and the environment keeps us alive. Therefore, we should make the time to sort our food waste. If we do not, this organic matter ends up in the landfill. And in the landfill, it gets buried and soon after it creates a methane gas that goes up in the atmosphere and this adds up and warms up the planet, which means we are helping to accelerate climate change. It is time for UNBC to take the responsibility and become an example of sustainability to their students, faculty members, and the Prince George community at large.
References:
Hu, Shelia. 2020. “Composting 101.” NRDC. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/composting-
101#howto
Mullen, Daniel, Josée St. Pierre, and Lucy Swank. “Design Proposal for UNBC’s Organic Waste
Management System.” Moosewood Consulting. Proposal.
Timms, Katie, Katie Kramer, Taryn Pedersson, Daemon Cline, and Alex Naudi. 2018. PGPIRG
PGPIRG. 1995. “Who are we?”. https://pgpirg.square.site
