(February 9, 2012)

GreenHouse builds compost tumblers

SHREVEPORT, LA — GreenHouse students met in the community garden behind Centenary Square Sunday, February 5, to build new compost tumblers for the campus.

"This is a way of life for me," said Bonnie Bernard, sophomore/junior biology and chemistry major. "We make something positive and productive out of what people have just thrown away. The bins and wooden stands were scrap that we collected, and the community garden is standing on land that no one thought was useful."

Due to the GreenHouse students' efforts, Centenary now has two compost tumblers and a traditional compost three-bin system to collect waste. The tumblers and bin break down green material such as vegetable waste and brown material like paper and leaves to create compost, which will be used to fertilize the community garden.

"This project takes care of a sustainability issue that is local and close-to-home," said junior and GreenHouse resident Krista McKinney. "Every day we are throwing away a ton of food. Now, we can collect some of the waste, compost it, and fertilize our garden."

GreenHouse participants can earn academic credit by participating in the "Sustainability Projects Lab," designing and implementing a sustainability project on campus. Bernard along with McKinney is leading the project to create more composters and to collect materials for composting from the dining hall in Bynum Commons. They have created weekly rotating teams to collect the waste and load the composters.

Centenary's GreenHouse living learning community is open to students who are interested in environmental issues and sustainability. GreenHouse students live and study together through team-taught learning labs, service learning and internship opportunities, and special events.