{"id":25024,"date":"2017-10-25T20:00:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T01:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=25024"},"modified":"2017-10-25T19:22:19","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T00:22:19","slug":"apsus-center-for-service-learning-community-engagement-ramps-up-sustainability-efforts-with-compost-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2017\/10\/25\/apsus-center-for-service-learning-community-engagement-ramps-up-sustainability-efforts-with-compost-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"APSU’s Center for Service-Learning & Community Engagement ramps up sustainability efforts with compost machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – One of the missions of Austin Peay State University\u2019s Center for Service-Learning & Community Engagement is to keep things local.<\/p>\n

From its S.O.S. Food Pantry that takes donations and makes them available for needy students to its Victory Gardens and egg-producing chickens that generate fresh food, the Center has a keen interest in taking care of its own.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Director of the APSU Center for Service Learning & Community Engagement, Alexandra Wills and Student Worker, Leslie Warren demonstrate the new waste compost on campus.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Now, with the recent installation of a large-scale composter known as an Earth Tub and partnerships with campus and community organizations, the Center has found a way to keep its food waste local \u2014 all while helping to reduce the University\u2019s impact on the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis compost machine isn\u2019t necessarily in the job description of Service-Learning, but it\u2019s another thing that I felt like we needed to be doing here,\u201d Alexandra Wills, director for the Center for Service-Learning & Community Engagement, said. \u201cThankfully, Austin Peay is supportive (of these initiatives) and lets us do it, so we had to take advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Installed in late summer, the Earth Tub can handle up to 100 pounds of food and paper a day, and the fully enclosed machine features power mixing, compost aeration and filtration of all process air. Popular among universities, the Earth Tub has been installed at, among other institutions, Youngstown State University, Xavier University, the University of Maine and Washington State University in recent years.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The large-scale composter known as an Earth Tub being used on Austin Peay State University.<\/p><\/div>\n

Service-Learning has partnered with Chartwells, the University\u2019s official food service provider, to keep the Earth Tub filled with food waste, \u201cor greens,\u201d that would have previously been sent to the landfill. In addition, Austin Peay\u2019s Physical Plant and Clarksville\u2019s local newspaper, The Leaf-Chronicle, have been tapped to donate \u201cbrowns,\u201d or dry, carbon-rich waste like newspapers, hay and sawdust to ensure the right mix of ingredients to make useable compost.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a perfect partnership between Chartwells and Austin Peay,\u201d James Mott, Austin Peay executive chef, said. \u201cWe have actually seen quite a decrease in our dumpster space by not having these things going into it. We will process at least 100 pounds of produce a day and all the trimmings can really add up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon completion of the first batch of compost, Wills said, grounds crews will take what once would have been discarded waste and use the fresh soil for landscaping efforts across campus.<\/p>\n

The eventual goal, Wills said, is to use the tub, and other initiatives like it, to completely eliminate food waste on campus.<\/p>\n

[320left]\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019d like to see happening eventually, and we\u2019re working with Dining Services to work toward that goal,\u201d Wills said.<\/p>\n

Laura Prange, sustainability coordinator at Austin Peay, commended Service-Learning for its efforts, noting that the Earth Tub represents Austin Peay\u2019s leap beyond what is the \u201ctraditional\u201d order of campus sustainability efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cUniversity campuses across the country take on \u2018reduce, reuse and recycle\u2019 as their first sustainability project, and typically large scale composting is the final, crowning achievement,\u201d Prange said. \u201cHere at APSU, our new composting program sets a high bar to increase all of our everyday recyclables and that is exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Installation of an Earth Tub was not without cost, but Wills said much of the one-time cost associated with the project will pave the way for expanded compost efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they brought this first Earth Tub to campus, they had to run electricity and some other things to power the unit, but our goal is to bring a second Earth Tub and maybe a third down the road that can all be powered by what we already have,\u201d Wills said.<\/p>\n

To find out more about Austin Peay\u2019s Center for Service-Learning & Community Engagement, visit www.apsu.edu\/volunteer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – One of the missions of Austin Peay State University\u2019s Center for Service-Learning & Community Engagement is to keep things local. From its S.O.S. Food Pantry that takes donations and makes them available for needy students to its Victory Gardens and egg-producing chickens that generate fresh food, the Center has a keen interest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[16265,23,24595,26883,10328,262,4159,825,31149,31148,31153,31154,1908,24623,31152,31151,31150],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-6vC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25024"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25026,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25024\/revisions\/25026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}