Composting is nature’s way of recycling.  Composting is controlled biological reduction of organic wastes to humus.  The end product, compost, is used as a soil amendment that provides plant nutrients, supports beneficial soil life, reduces soil diseases, increases water retention in sandy soil and adds drainage to clay soils, and promotes weed and erosion control.

What can be composted

Compostable		grass, leaves, tree limbs, shrub waste, food waste, animal lab waste, hand towels, paper plates, napkins, wax cups, wax cardboard
NotCompostable		oils, weeds, diseased plants, meat, bones, dairy products, cat, dog, or human waste, hazardous materials, plastic, glass, metal, treated wood

Composting methods: grasscycling, piles, long rows (windrows), in-vessel, and vermicomposting.

The MUSC campus has several composting facilities:

• Outdoor Compost Corral - large enclosures used for campus yard waste
• Back Yard Composting Container in Therapy Garden at Institute of Psychiatry - for branches and leaves in small garden
• Vermicomposting - for cafeteria waste. Vermicomposting uses red wiggler (eisenia foetida) worms to do the work of composting.  The worms eat the organics and leave behind castings. These systems come in a variety of sizes:

You can have a 10-gallon container that might handle a small department’s or household's food waste. If you would like to build your own worm bin, here are step by step instructions and sources for worms

or you can have a continuous flow system that could handle all of the institutions food waste. See daily care instructions to post next to compost bin:Working with the worms

MUSC's worm facility at 17 Ehrhardt St

Additional resources:

Institutional Composting, a Step by Step guide
How to Win at Composting, a Power Point presentation

For more information on the Sustainability Program at MUSC call 2-4066 or email recycle@musc.edu