Composting

Weigh the Waste

Weigh the Waste is a collaborative initiative between Stony Brook University’s (SBU) Office of Sustainability and SunriseSBU. Its objective is to raise awareness around SBU’s rampant food waste production through a direct action campaign in university dining halls. Volunteers operate the waste disposal area of East Side Dining to condition customers to reckon with the food waste they generate. The program directs dining hall customers to manually wipe their food waste onto a scale, gathering insight on waste habits. Additionally, the team guides customers to separate compostable food scraps for diversion to composters operated by volunteers from the Office of Sustainability and the Auxiliary Services Association. Compostable waste accounts for approximately 8% of the total food waste output. The presence of volunteers ensures a productive outlet for its use.

Composting Pilot Project (Summer 2026)

In a cross department collaboration of the Office of Sustainability, SoMAS, ASA, and SunriseSBU, we are investing in a compost pilot program outside of East Side Dining. This effort will expand the current composting program run through ASA and Weigh the Waste. This program has fostered interdisciplinary learning and service opportunities for students that work towards both CLCPA and SUNY CASP goals. Students gain hands-on learning experience about food waste, which can be incorporated as a living lab component of pre-existing courses offered on campus. Students in the composting program collect food waste from WTW as well as preconsumer waste from kitchen staff to feed into the composter.

Pollinator Garden (coming soon!)

Erin Kluge and SoMAS professor Adam Charboneau’s Xerces Society Habitat Kit proposal was awarded an in-kind grant for a small/urban pollinator garden to be established on Stony Brook’s campus. The kit contains 500 herbaceous plants and 2 shrubs—a Chokeberry and Arrowwood Viburnum. This Bee Campus garden will be part of a larger vision of expanded composting, public-facing sustainability initiatives, and inclusive, experiential learning.