Since Dan Barwick, the sustainability coordinator at Goshen College, was hired in September 2023, faculty, students and staff have awaited a composting system.

When looking for a new coordinator in the area, the hiring committee made clear their idea to have Barwick as the person responsible for overall composting on campus. However, it was not until the spring semester of this year that Barwick started the sustainability project. 

Barwick stated that the school’s primary thought was composting everything, back when the cafeteria was reestablished in the Union Building, but the volume of the materials that were to be composted was the issue. “Previously, we had these compost wooden boxes, but, with our calculations, we would go through every single one of those in a month because of all the paper plates … so we had to build bigger boxes and that takes time to design and implement,” Barwick said.

The larger boxes were assembled and are currently located behind the Physical Plant on the 10th Street entrance available to the public. Along with that, there are five more locations on campus where composting is available: East Hall, the Good Library, Java Junction, the Science Building and Howell House.

Concerning the new Westlawn facility that was first inaugurated in November, Barwick believes that the building is not ready yet to receive the duty: “The biggest reason why we aren’t composting Westlawn is because there just isn’t space right now … if you look at the compost bay you will see that it just doesn’t look great.”

However, the Sustainability Committee has a meeting this week concerning the issue, thinking ahead for some resolutions. “Right now we have two boxes but only one has a roof on top of it and is ready to compost … we will discuss the possibility of buying another roof for the other box so we have more space,” said Barwick.

The composting system is also accessible to students who live in campus residences. Students who live in Howell House or at East Hall get a residence bucket to discard their compostable materials throughout the week. On Tuesdays, they are expected to set it outside of their front door so it can get swapped out for a clean one by the Facilities, formerly known as Physical Plant.

Kelsey Moore, a junior art and environmental science double major at GC, lives in East Hall and takes part in the composting project. “I was the first one to notice how good it would be to have a composting box inside our house … there’s eight of us in the house and it’s become our routine already, we fill it up every week,” she said.

Concerning the Octavio Romero Student Apartments, Barwick recalls a senior student from last year who did a composting project in the upperclassmen apartments and mentions it serving as inspiration for future ideas. “Mia Wellington, for one of her senior projects, made a compost pickup for the apartments in May term last year … the goal for this semester was to continue what Mia was doing and implement it on the apartments.”

Moore spoke of her high hopes and enthusiasm for a possible composting station in Romero. “I think it would be cool if this was offered for people in the apartments too, or if other people were made aware … it’s such a good way to alleviate environmental impacts and it’s cool if it was made accessible to other people,” she said.

Barwick sees composting as an essential part of a college campus. “The more we can divert from the landfill which creates greenhouse gasses and all of that the better. This is also a great habit for students to have for when they move out and start living alone … if you start a system of composting now it will for sure be advantageous to your future.”

As a piece of advice for those who want to start composting, Moore states how practical it is to begin. “I would say just start. You can start with a little thing on your counter and eventually develop it into something bigger … it will definitely be beneficial,” said Moore.