Dear friends of the S.C.R.A.P. Lab,
Happy New Year! We hope all fifty-five of you are enjoying a great start to 2023 !
As with every first post of a new year, the ComPOSTer takes a moment to recap the highlights from the past year, and provide some optimism for the the current year.
2022 YEAR IN REVIEW
- We covered the construction, electrification, and equipment updates as the S.C.R.A.P. Lab was pieced back together at our new location
- We celebrated International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) from May 1-7 with consecutive educational posts on compost how-to’s and compost benefits:
- We engaged with 30 young professionals through the NJDEP’s Youth Inclusion program to introduce them to careers in environmental justice and sustainability
- We applied for and received a grant from the NJDEP’s Recycling Enhancement Award Research Grant program to study and test innovate new methods for using, collecting, and recycling compostable plastic products.
- After a 2+ year hiatus, we were happy to restart composting operations during the Fall 2022 semester, restarting our partnerships with Coffee Club and retail dining. We added a van to our arsenal to enable more food scraps pick-ups, diverted compostable materials from two large events, and altogether composted 5 tons worth of material in 2022.
2023 PLANS
New efforts and/or repeat activities that we didn’t quite get to in 2022:
- Hosting a Wintersession Tour to raise awareness of campus composting among the campus community
- Holding a re-launch ribbon-cutting ceremony with the greater Princeton community
- On-boarding an assistant operational manager
- Executing on our DEP grant to study improved ways to collect and recycle compostable serviceware, while engaging first year students in a new seminar called Decomposing the Science of Composting
- Launching new graphics and informational signage for the new facility
- Continuing to raise awareness about the environmental justice implications of composting when applicable
