Tom Vodrey, Staff Writer—
The arrival of a biodigester and a cardboard baler on campus are expected to have a positive impact on the university’s sustainability efforts by reducing waste and increasing recycling. Through a collaborative effort between Sustainability and Campus Improvement, Facilities and Bon Appetit, the University secured $89,447 in grant funding from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to purchase and install the two new pieces of equipment.
The biodigester will be installed in the P3 parking level of Slayter Student Union to process food waste from Slayter’s kitchens. In place of the University’s current practice of sending food scraps to a composter in Dublin, Ohio, the biodigester will turn scraps of discarded food into soil for landscaping and gardening on campus. By processing scraps on campus, the plan is to reduce the carbon emissions from transporting them, and keep the resulting soil for use by University groundskeepers. Proponents of the biodigester see it as part of a broader push in changing how the community thinks about food waste.
“We determined it would provide the most bang for our buck to install it in Slayter and move the needle the most,” said Michael Supp, Denison’s Director of Facilities Operations and an organizer of the project.
The biodigester will be joined by a cardboard baler. Used to press loose cardboard into bundles, the machine will allow for greater efficiency in the university’s recycling process by making transportation easier. Currently a smaller baler is used at Huffman Hall, but increasing demand has necessitated the need for a larger unit.
Funding for the project was provided by the Ohio EPA through a grant covering 75% of the cost. Jeremy King, Denison’s Director of Sustainability and Campus Improvement and an organizer of the project, said that plans for a biodigester and cardboard baler had long been in the works, and that the Ohio EPA’s grant program provided an opportunity to put them into action.
“We had wanted to pursue these projects for a long time,” he said. “The EPA funding lined up really well with what we wanted to do.”
The biodigester is expected to be ready by January 2024, with the university currently waiting on the manufacture and shipment of the made-to-order unit from Europe, as well as the installation of electrical capacity upgrades in Slayter to power its operation. The cardboard baler was expected to be installed and put to use by October 30.
Both Supp and King see the project as a pilot, and potentially the sign of more to come. Once both units are operational, the university intends to assess the utility and success of both before exploring the installation of others in the future.