<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=01GsfN_1GpJOLdL00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=01GsfN_1GpJOLdL00" width="2048" height="2048" ><figcaption>Charlotte Willenbring/The Miscellany News.</figcaption></figure>Vassar College’s Dining Services have officially rolled back the semester’s effort to compost in the Gordon Commons, an act that could have environmental ramifications for years to come. For the first six weeks of the semester, students were asked to sort between their food and trash and dump food waste in green compost bins. However, trash was consistently mixed in with the food, making it impossible for food to be composted properly. In an email to the students on Tuesday, Oct. 13, Dean Macheska announced, “We remain committed to exploring ways to advance our sustainability goals while ensuring that our dining operations are effective and manageable for our staff. We may pilot a different approach to food waste sorting in the spring semester.” It is absolutely essential that Vassar finds a way to compost food, no matter how many attempts it takes, because we as an institution produce a significant amount of food waste. In a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, college students were found to waste 112 pounds of food per student per year. At Vassar, that means wasting over 280,000 pounds of food every year. That wasted food is playing a significant role in heating up our communities.So far, 2026 is on track to be one of hottest years on record in the history of the United States. We all feel the effects of this in our day-to-day lives: unpredictable weather patterns, major storms, decreased air quality from Canadian wildfires. No matter who you are, rising temperatures have impacted your family and community at one point or another. Although the environmental buzzword of the recent decades has been carbon, there is a more sinister gas at play here, one that has the potential to significantly improve air pollution and overheating if mitigated: methane. According to a video by scientist Simon Clark, Ph.D., methane kills crops, causes severe asthma and has a negative impact on reproductive health. Over the course of 20 years, methane has trapped 86 times more heat than carbon dioxide. Luckily, that means cutting down on methane emissions has a much more immediate impact. What is a major cause of methane? Food waste. Food that ends up in trash cans and then landfills. The good news? According to the United Nations, cutting methane would offer a great climate benefit: “That climate benefit is greater than taking every car and truck in the world off the road immediately.” Imagine breathing in the air outside if there was not a single car on the road. We can achieve the same air quality by cutting methane emissions which simultaneously prevents the global temperature from rising. Cutting Vassar’s methane emissions through composting is a step we must take in order to improve our own health and safety. Rising New York temperatures and bad air quality cause asthma. These conditions might seem hopeless, but that is simply not the case. We have the resources we need to improve the quality of life for ourselves and our neighbors. We just have to continue to utilize these resources, and that starts with institutional changes like a consistent, successful composting program.Efforts for methane mitigation are well underway. In September, Monica Prabhu of the Methane Mitigation Council spoke to Vassar students about her work. She emphasized that composting is one of the most successful ways to make an impact on a personal level. As college students, we can each keep 112 pounds of food per year out of landfills. When colleges like Vassar can reduce their food waste, the impact increases.On an institutional level, it is imperative that Vassar does not give up on composting. Finding new and innovative ways to compost wasted food will help pave our way to lower temperatures and cleaner and healthier air. As students, faculty and diners at the Gordon Commons, it is so incredibly important that when Vassar rolls out a new composting plan, we do everything within our power to implement it. Yes, I know that it takes an extra moment every meal to ensure that your uneaten food and dirty napkins are separated, but that extra moment will make such a critical impact. Right now, it is easy to feel like we are doomed, like our health is just going to be exponentially declining and our summer heat waves constantly increasing, but that is simply not the case. We have a chance to make an impact, and by decreasing our methane emissions we can make a substantial difference in the air quality of the next decade. If that takes an extra moment today, trust that it will be worth it.</div></body>

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Vassar College’s Dining Services have officially rolled back the semester’s effort to compost in the Gordon Commons, an act that could have environmental ramifications for years to come. For the first six weeks of the semester, students were asked to sort between their food and trash and dump food waste in green compost bins. However, trash was consistently mixed in with the food, making it impossible for food to be composted properly.

Vassar must not give up on composting

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Vassar College’s Dining Services have officially rolled back the semester’s effort to compost in the Gordon Commons, an act that could have environmental r

Vassar must not give up on composting

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