For most people, the moment the leftovers drop and the leftovers are picked up at the bottom of green compost bins in dining halls marks what the end of the line will be for that meal. In fact, just like the long adventure he took. To get to your plate, this meal still has a lot of work to do.
There is one group of students who know exactly what happens to this food waste after mealtime: the Associated Students (A.S.) Department of Public Worms (DPW). Founded in 2004 as an offshoot of the A.S. Recycling group, these students are passionate about composting and sustainable agriculture practices. DPW began its partnership with UC Santa Barbara’s residential dining commons in 2012. In 2019, their operations further expanded with the establishment of the DPW Farm on west campus.
“We have a wonderful relationship with Dining Commons, and I think a lot of that is due to consistency,” A. S. said. said Marla Greer, garden coordinator. They know what to expect from us and go above and beyond to supply quality smart appliances for our operations. We contact them every term, but it is the students who have direct contact with the kitchen staff.
Every morning, an organization of DPW academics, called “worm fighters,” stop by the dining halls to rummage through those giant green bins.
“We go in the mornings, as they’re prepping the food for the day,” Greer said. “We’ve got grabbers and gloves [because] it’s definitely a dirty job to hand-sort and pick out things from their green bins and put them in our bins.”
DPW is particular about what they can take. They primarily collect pre-consumer food waste, meaning food waste that has not been on somebody’s plate. Most of this is the “back of house” byproducts accumulated during meal preparation, like the inedible part of any fruit or vegetable that gets chopped off. They can take any produce items as well as other organic products such as eggshells, coffee grounds and tea bags. They avoid oil-based products (like salad dressings), animal products that could contaminate the pile, “compostable” plastic items and breads, which are technically compostable but take longer than the other items.
After deciding what they want from the communal dining room, the computer virus fighters load their bounty into the all-electric DPW vehicle that they are trained to drive as they travel between their various locations. The first prevention for food waste is “The Grove,” a composting site on the Harder Stadium campus.
Two types of composting are practiced at The Grove: thermophilic composting and vermicompost. Thermophilic means that the temperature of the pile increases as microorganisms actively break down its contents. Once the food waste is disposed of, a layer of mulch is added to the most sensitive part and the pile is sprayed with water to ensure moisture. Worm fighters will measure the temperature of the pile until it reaches the target temperature of 130 F, then it will be remixed and left to sit until heated again. This procedure is repeated 3 times until the food debris is unrecognizable. The pile is sifted and what is left is fine but very nutrient-rich soil that will be incorporated into DPW’s agricultural beds.
Additional nutrients come from vermicompost, also known as vermicompost. On the other side of the grove are two giant structures. At first glance, they appear to be filled with dirt, newspapers, and some fruit debris. But if you look closer, you can see that those boxes are full of life. The worms work around the clock to digest and break down what the fighters hand-select according to their tastes.
“Worms are picky eaters,” Greer said. They possibly don’t need anything very spicy or acidic, so while we’re collecting food scraps, we’re also selecting what the worms like to eat, such as leafy greens, apples, bananas, juicy melons. Everything else goes into the hot compost.
These wooden containers have been home to many generations of earthworms. They were originally built and placed around Isla Vista, and DPW would handle biological food waste from local restaurants prior to the UCSB Dining deal. At the moment, they are in the midst of a renovation.
“We’re restoring them, repurposing them so we can enjoy the structures for many more years,” Greer said.
When computer viruses break down biological waste, they produce computer virus droppings, necessarily computer virus manure that acts as a kind of superfood for plants. The highly concentrated droppings combine with water to make what Greer calls “computer virus tea. “The virus tea is then brought to DPW’s farm to stimulate the microbiological activity of the soil.
Anyone who makes a stopover at DPW’s farm will likely witness the growing of the product and then supply it to the A. S. food bank. Going forward, Greer said students can expect to see produce from the farm at the food bank every two weeks.
“Right now, things on the farm are still small, but our summer harvests were delicious and bountiful,” Greer said. “We had things like tomatoes, cucumbers, lots of beans and lots of peppers. “This time of year you can find things like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, radishes, and carrots on the farm.
If this food is claimed at the food bank, it returns to The Grove as biological food waste to be composted with leftovers from the dining hall. Greer talked about the “closed-loop” ion that is at the center of the DPW’s mission.
“It’s about keeping it all in a loop,” she said. “Any produce that’s grown at the farm is donated to the food bank, any food that is not picked up can come back to us, we’ll compost it and, when that’s complete, we take that back to the farm and use it to grow more food. We’re not losing any of the nutrients throughout the cycle.”
This is the only closed loop operated through DPW. In addition to running campus restaurants and A. S. A as a food bank, they also manage the two community gardens in Family Student Housing (FSH), with 30 plots in West Campus FSH and 60 plots in Storke. FSH. FSH citizens can donate their food scraps to DPW, which will compost them and return nutrients to their network gardens.
In one year of operation, from early fall 2022 to late summer 2023, the Department of Public Worms diverted 15,144. 85 pounds of food waste from landfills, according to its records.
“I think it’s vital to note that while DPW diverts a small fraction of the food waste generated at UCSB, it’s all kept on-site,” Greer said. In addition, he noted that “it’s actually only twelve engaged students” who manage this amount of food waste during the school year.
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