An unchecked epidemic is growing in America: a third of the food produced for consumers ends up going uneaten and turned to waste. Loyola hasn’t been spared from this disease, with thousands of pounds of food being wasted every day. Luckily, the world and our school has a solution to mitigate and manage waste: composting. Loyola’s Composting Program, implemented last semester, tackles the problem head-on by implementing new compost bins around campus. However, many students have come back with mixed feelings over its success.
Jacob Boyle ‘26, a student leader for the composting club and an advocate for campus improvement, believes that the Loyola community is finally doing its part in helping the environment: “Our food scraps are now going back into the environment instead of dumps.” He maintains, “The new green bins have proved to help stop food waste at Loyola.” Boyle hopes the Compost Club’s work will continually contribute to community-wide sustainability into the upcoming years.
However, not every Loyola student is on board with the new initiative.
Johnny McNown ‘26 is among the skeptics, commenting, “[The Loyola Composting Program was] a good idea, with poor execution… Despite our best efforts, we failed because of inefficiencies in the accessibility of composting.”
Additionally, he has observed students using the bins erroneously. McNown claims to see fellow students misbehaving with the green bins to get attention from peers. In one instance, an anonymous student put a whole fish into a composting bin. He himself does not use the bins and rarely witnesses them being used by students.
Fortunately, there are some possible solutions for the Composting Program. Andrew Kowal ‘26 shares his thoughts on what improvements could be made. He thinks that “educating students on what to compost” would “encourage more students to do it.”
Additionally, he suggests that Loyola must implement accessible bins located frequently around campus. He is confident that Global Scholars and the Composting Club can improve those aspects as the club expands. Despite the initial speed bumps, the program has made large leaps. In this semester alone, 2 tons of compostable waste, previously headed toward a landfill, were converted into nutrient-dense dirt to benefit the environment.
Students are clearly divided in how they feel about the initiative. While this program has been a great first step, it is clear that the Loyola community needs further initiative to bring composting to its fullest potential.
