{"id":154,"date":"2015-07-16T10:00:45","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T15:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/sustainability\/?page_id=154"},"modified":"2026-02-04T12:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:06:14","slug":"compost","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/sustainability\/services\/food\/compost\/","title":{"rendered":"Compost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"size-p-lg\">Our mission behind our composting programs is to implement a more sustainable way of handling 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s waste. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We keep kitchen scraps from entering the traditional waste stream landfill, turn that waste into valuable fertilizer, and help reduce 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions. 51ÁÔÆæ composts, on average, 200,000 lbs per year. We manage two separate streams for compost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Composting at UW-Milwaukee\" width=\"1400\" height=\"788\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EPXUO_-jCSM?start=1&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-on-site-composting-hoop-house\">On Site Composting (Hoop House)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our onsite composting program utilizes a number of static piles and an Earth Cube to break down fresh fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, and coffee grounds into a finished product. The Sandburg Caf\u00e9 collects pre-consumer food scraps in their kitchen, which are added throughout the week to the compost piles by student employees and volunteers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Further, we offer a voluntary opt-in composting program \u2013 Panther Pails \u2013 which allows the campus community to also contribute to onsite composting. After a few months of careful monitoring, turning, and important microbe-assistance, the food scraps in these piles become a nutrient-loaded fertilizer that the Office of Sustainability uses on garden plots found all around campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-panther-pails\">Panther Pails<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Panther Pails is our signature, on-campus composting program. Students, faculty, and staff can opt-in to take part. Food waste composted on site at 51ÁÔÆæ turns into nutrient rich compost, which we use in our campus gardens every year, to grow more fresh produce!&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/forms.office.com\/pages\/responsepage.aspx?id=w3rKC7b8_U6J623pdgPPIUwlAkEdcFtItkfD_MPxsJJUODgwRUE5MVpFR1pER1pYRDZUN1JIM0hRQS4u&amp;route=shorturl\"><u>Register for Panther Pails!<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What to put in your pail:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Coffee grounds (no filter)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Egg shells<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fresh fruit scraps (e.g. apple cores, orange peels, strawberry tops)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fresh vegetable scraps (e.g. carrot peels, broccoli stems)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-on-site-compost-expansion-part-of-feed-mke\">On-Site Compost Expansion &#8211; Part of FEED MKE <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2025, the Office of Sustainability received a $19,705 FEED MKE mini-grant, sponsored by the City of Milwaukee Environmental Collaboration Office. With the grant, 51ÁÔÆæ is expanding access to Panther Pails compost program, and we are adding a new on-site composting drum. This 450 gallon, semi-industrial compost drum will support faster turnover of on-site composting from about 6-7 months for static piles to as short as 1-2 weeks in the drum. Once implemented, 51ÁÔÆæ&#8217;s composting programs will serve as a community demonstration site featuring four distinct methods and scales of composting: static piles, Earth Cube, compost drum, and off-site hauling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-off-site-composting\">Off-Site Composting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Other forms of food waste like meat, dairy, or after-meal scraps are hauled by our off-campus partner, Compost Crusader. Post-consumer compost is collected from the Sandburg Cafe, Cambridge Commons, and select Grind locations. These food scraps are taken off-site and composted at an industrial scale to produce a nutrient rich compost!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our mission behind our composting programs is to implement a more sustainable way of handling 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s waste. We keep kitchen scraps from entering the traditional waste stream landfill, turn that waste into valuable fertilizer, and help reduce 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s greenhouse gas &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":522,"featured_media":0,"parent":146,"menu_order":56,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"class_list":["post-154","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Office of Sustainability<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/sustainability\/services\/food\/compost\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Compost\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our mission behind our composting programs is to implement a more sustainable way of handling 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s waste. 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