As I have said many times in class and in my other posts, I am very lucky to be an intern for MUSC Sustainability and Recycling. On my first week there I was in a hairnet in the hospital kitchen, on my hands and knees in the dirt, and feeding paper towels to worms. It was extremely weird but also eye opening!

There is a lot of talk in the world and media about becoming “zero waste,” but what does that mean? It does not exactly mean that a person or entity will not create any waste at all, but that none of the waste created will be sent to a landfill. It means that all of the waste will be able to be reused. We want less waste going to landfills because when waste goes to a landfill, it is there forever. There is currently too much waste going to landfills, and when it decomposes it creates methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas, and we definitely want less of that! Landfills affect the economy because so much of what is already inside of them could have been used for reusable projects. Also, those reusable objects take up a ton of space that can be used for other landfillable objects.

So how can this be fixed? Education is necessary, but not efficient. There needs to be action taken!

So first, we have to educate people on what waste goes where. My favorite topic to talk about is something I’ve become very familiar with as the MUSC intern; Composting!

MUSC uses composted soil all over campus. I am lucky enough to get to feed and mix the worms on a monthly basis. However, it gets very challenging when the MUSC campus fails to correctly compost. If any raw meat gets into the worm bin, it’s a smelly nightmare and we have to air out the compost shed. But composting is so easy if done correctly, that it’s possible for everyone to compost at home!

There are tons of resources to start at-home composting, and I will link a video down below!

Composting is an easy and rewarding way to become that much closer to zero waste!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwu21uR1oBQ