The Washington University Green Ambassadors will expand their residential compost program to include four more dorms on the South 40.

The Washington University Green Ambassadors (WUGAs) expanded the pilot program from one to five dorms, with the first compost distribution event occurring in late January. At the distribution event students were able to sign up for the program and receive composting materials.

The program was tested in Dardick House last spring, and due to the initiative’s success, WUGA co-directors sophomore Alexis Tinoco and senior Claire Ji decided to expand the program. Now, compost totes will be distributed in Lee Hall, Beaumont Hall, Park House and Nemerov House.

“The program was test piloted in Dardick in the spring of 2018 and had favorable results,” Ji and Tinoco wrote in a statement to Student Life. “This year, we made some changes to the implementation of dorm composting to improve the system’s overall efficiency (like getting bigger totes for composting and having a Housekeeping Liaison, Public Relations, and Waste Audit team that each support the Compost Program in different ways).”

Alexandra Khalil, a member of the WUGAs’ PR team, said she’s hopeful about the prospects of expanding the program.

“I think it’s a great start to what we want to promote on campus in terms of composting and being environmentally friendly and informed,” Khalil said. “And I think it’s a great way to educate students about composting.”

Although the pilot is still in its early stages, the program has received positive feedback from students.

“I’d definitely recommend other students participate in composting,” freshman Natalia Tovar said. “It’s a really simple and effective way for students to help make this campus more sustainable.”

Freshman Ethan Copeland said that he appreciates the convenience the tote affords him when composting.

“I got a compost tote because I’m just concerned generally about the environment and the food waste that I was throwing away,” Copeland said. “[The compost tote] makes it easier and you don’t have to go out of your dorm as much.”

Khalil said she hopes students will compost more as a result of the accessibility of the compost totes.

“Our goals in the pilot were to promote composting and environmental sustainability among students and to offer a way for students to compost in the comfort of their dorms, thus making it more convenient and increasing the likelihood that students compost their waste,” Khalil said.

According to Tinoco and Ji, the WUGAs will assess the results to see what can be improved.

“In the next few weeks, we want to keep pushing our program and give out the remainder of our buckets,” they wrote. “We are also in the process of planning our first waste-audit in the dorms so we can see how well (or not well!) people are sorting their compost.”

Overall, Tinoco and Ji are pleased with the results of the pilot so far and are hopeful for the future of the program.

“We think it has become increasingly apparent that this is something that residents want and I think that as demand grows, it will be more likely this program can get adopted into all of the South 40,” Ji and Tinoco wrote. “We think it will take time to get there, but we really do appreciate the support and inquiries—they show us that South 40 residents truly care about living sustainably!”