By Kevin Hershey
When the residents of the Tyson Green House first moved in at the end of August, we ransacked the house for a recycling bin, but none could be found.
So there we were: the Green House, which is meant to serve as a model for sustainable living on campus, with not even a recycling bin.
We soon solved this problem by requesting a bin from the Physical Plant, but we quickly ran into the issue of where and how to dispose of our compostable materials.
One of the many differences between life in the regular dorms and life in the apartment-style Village housing is that with a kitchen in each unit, you really start to notice how many fruit peels, coffee grounds, rotting vegetables and tea bags you produce.
So we set our minds to solving our predicament and now, five months later, each house in the Tyson and Haggerty has its own brand new compost bin, thanks to help from the Student Led Unity Garden (SLUG) and Residence Life.
Composting on the University of Portland campus is much easier than one might think at first glance.
A little known fact is that the mysterious, but beautiful SLUG is located in the far corner of the campus overlooking the bluff and the St. John's Bridge just on the other side of the Village housing.
The garden not only provides a host of fresh organic vegetables and herbs for anyone in the community who wants to stop by and harvest them, but it also has a large compost tumbler that can turn your waste (okay, maybe not your beer cans or your bodily waste) into natural fertilizer that can be directly reused by the earth.
The main purpose of composting at the University is to help close the food loop. In other words, we are trying to take the food we would have thrown away and return it to the soil, where it becomes useful nutrients for germinating plants that we can later enjoy.
In composting, we are literally giving back part of what we have taken from Mother Nature and our previously "dead" food waste is taking on new life. It's kind of like Ash Wednesday or Easter everyday: ashes to ashes, life to death to new life. So if Jesus can rise from the dead, your orange rinds can too, right?
It is important to see how composting reflects the Catholic character of our campus. Like the University's new decision to end the sale of plastic water bottles, composting directly related to the principle of stewardship of creation from Catholic social teaching.
Here, we recognize that the planet is not ours to use and abuse and that we do not ultimately own it.
As humans, we are merely temporary stewards of the Earth and it is our responsibility to give back as much as we can rather than simply pillaging. This is where earth-loving hippies and the Catholic authorities can peacefully coexist and come together for a common cause. But you don't have to be wearing hemp and you don't have to be a person of faith to compost.
If you are a person who produces waste in the form of fruit peels, vegetable skins, tea bags, coffee grounds, dryer lint, plants or leftover fruits and vegetables, you can compost.
So to the residents of the Village: this could not be easier. All you have to do is put your compostable waste in your bin, which Residence Life kindly spent more money on to ensure odor prevention, and leave it outside your door.
To the rest of the campus community: you may not have a composting service available to you, but if you're in the mood for a lovely stroll across campus for a good cause, you are more than welcome to stop by SLUG and pitch in your waste as well. Everyone can do it.
Kevin Hershey is a sophomore Spanish major
