Composting Guidelines

Composting Guidelines

Currently Lane Community College Does Not Support Composting

As of July 2019, we can not accept composting from post-consumer sources. Our processor made several changes to what they accept. The processor will only take pure food waste. Since most of our compostables is comprised of plates, serviceware, and paper products, we cannot offer this service at this time. We are still composting food waste from our kitchens. We hope that we can find a processor or a new processor will become available soon and we can offer this service again.

If you want to have this service available again in the Eugene-Springfield area, call your city or county waste management office and advocate for it.

The information below is archive content for now. 

compost items

Archived Information:

What:

All Compostable material. All food (preconsumer "food prep scraps" or post consumer "place scrapings") including meat and dairy. Almost all products purchased at LCC food services are compostable: plates, hot and cold coffee cups and lids, hot cup jackets, stir sticks, forks, knives, spoons, condiment cups and lids, clear sandwich and salad containers, soup cups, chopsticks, soda cups and lids, straws, Asian "to go" boxes, miscellaneous paper.

Where:

There are two ways for students, staff, and faculty to compost.

The primary place to compost material is in the cafeteria on the first level of the Center Building. In the cafeteria are bins for compost, along with bins for container recycling and landfill.

cafe containers  

The other way for departments to compost is by participating in the Green Office Certification Program or by requesting a compost bucket from Recycling. The departmental compost bucket requires that participants deliver the full bucket to the Recycling Center and pickup an clean, empty one. View program information about composting in your office.

compostables compost buckets

How?

Please place the appropriate material in the compost bin. In some cases you may have to physically separate non-compostable material from compostable material. In general, every piece of service ware from the LCC cafeteria can be placed in the compost bin. If you bring your food from off campus dining establishments, please make sure the service ware or coffee cup is labeled as Compostable. It will usually be indicated on the bottom of the container. Most non-compostable service ware looks exactly like compostable service ware. Due to the way the compsotables are processed by our vendor, very little contaminants (non-compostable material) are allowed. If you are in doubt, ask the establishment where you bought the food, contact Recycling Services, or discard it.