Ball State University
OP-T2-23: Landscape Waste Composting

Ball State has maintained a composting operation for about 20 years. The pile is comprised of leaves, brush, wood wastes, coffee grounds and horse manure. Everything except the horse manure is collected from campus operations. The horse manure is donated by the county fairgrounds and does not include any grass clippings. Grass clippings are not collected but allowed to remain on the campus lawns, which reduces the need for fertilizer applications. The brush and wood wastes are ground to approximately 1” and then mixed with the leaves and horse manure. The ground materials are stacked in concave static piles. The piles are turned once per month with a front end loader. The break-down process usually takes a year. The material is screened again to 1” minus once temperature readings indicate the pile has completed “ cooking.” Any material that exceeds the 1” minus is returned to the next compost cycle for further processing. Screened compost is stockpiled to allow for curing and then used on campus in landscape projects. On average the compost operation generates 3000 cubic yards of finished compost. In years past wood chips generated from the campus arborists were included in the compost operation. Several years ago the chips were removed from the compost process and used on campus as mulch in areas not requiring a higher grade of mulch. This has reduced the quantity of mulch purchased by 20 %.

Starting the spring 2011, graduate students from the Natural Resource and Environmental Management Department (NREM) implemented a pilot project looking at composting pre-consumer vegetable, pasta, and bakery items and utilizing these items in a separate small compost operation. To date, the students have collected and processed over 2000 pounds of waste from the Salad Prep Kitchen of LaFollette Dining Hall.