Engineering students at the University of Regina are designing a plan to compost the university’s food waste. Even though the university has considered composting proposals in the past, students think the design steps were not developed successfully, which has left the university one step behind major universities across Canada.
Jeeshan Ahmed, Minsoo Cho, Andres Palma and Pablo Jaramillo, students of environmental systems engineering, have focused their graduate project on a process of collection, transportation and diversion of the university’s waste, as well as the use of end products.
University’s facility management has shown its interest in the project and the final results. Kelvin Ng, engineering professor, will continue the research along with an assistant after the students have completed their work.
Members of the group will continue working on the project after they graduate. Minsoo Cho said the university has looked for companies with more efficient waste management. She added some groups have projects for recycling, but since composting has not been practiced on campus, no groups have shown interest in the project. ”The University of Regina Student Union is doing recycling, but not everywhere. We only have 21 recycling bins and they are not taken care of well,“ Cho said.
Students from the university have previously designed and executed composting projects in the city, with considerable success. The Depot program, started in January 2012, was able to compost 50 per cent of the waste that it produced by 2013.