Istanbul Medeniyet University Sustainability Office carries out projects in order to reduce waste production and environmental footprint.
IMU Sustainability Office continues to implement composting practices to reduce the amount of organic waste generated in our campus areas. In this context, a “Compost Workshop” was organized on December 22, 2023, within the scope of the “3rd Istanbul Medeniyet University Sustainability Week” activities, in cooperation with the Sustainability Office and the IMU Sustainability Student Club, in order to increase the number of composting practices within the campus areas and to raise awareness on this issue. The training given by Işık BAŞTUĞ was held at the IMU Sustainability Office, open to the participation of all Istanbul Medeniyet University students, staff and the public. In the workshop, the importance of compost, the importance of on-site mitigation, compost making, compost types, compost-soil-plant relationship were discussed, and after the theoretical training, a compost application was made from the food waste in our university.
Before the workshop started, the participants collected “brown” and “green” materials from the green areas in the Göztepe North Campus area under the leadership of Mine AKCA, the compost supervisor of the IMU Sustainability Student Club, to supply the materials to be used in the application phase of the training. At this stage, the “brown” materials were leaves, twigs, bark, etc. from the trees in our campus, and the “green” materials were the leftovers from the mowed lawns.
In the first part of the workshop, horticulture instructor Işık BAŞTUĞ gave a theoretical training on composting. BAŞTUĞ started her lecture by emphasizing the importance of reducing waste on site. Stating that 1.13kg of household waste is produced per person per day in Turkey, BAŞTUĞ noted that 12,000 tons of compost can be made annually from this organic waste, 200MW of energy can be produced from landfill gas, and that this means meeting the energy needs of 2.5 million people and significantly reducing the ecological footprint in urban areas.
BAŞTUĞ stated that the compost process is basically a process formed by the combination of browns, greens, sufficient moisture and air. She explained that composting provides a material that will regulate the soil, act as a fertilizer and nourish the soil. However, she emphasized that in order to obtain a healthy compost, wild plants containing seeds, onion peels, rotten plants, animal feces such as cats and dogs, acidic fruit peels should not be placed in the compost. After giving a basic information about compost, BAŞTUĞ gave information about hot compost, cold compost and vermicompost applications and gave information on how these composts can be applied.
After the theoretical part, the 2nd composting practice of 2023 was carried out in order to reduce the food waste generated in the campus areas. During the implementation phase, in addition to the materials collected by the participants before the workshop, the Sustainability Office added the vegetable waste from the meals prepared in the kitchen of our university during the week, the pulp obtained by drying the tea and coffee drunk in the office, and the unprinted parts of the boxes used for water delivery to the dining hall to the material list. The office team stated that the composting practice to be carried out in the workshop is of great importance in terms of IMU’s food waste reduction policies, zero waste policies and sustainability efforts, and that this composting practice will provide an important support to existing practices. In the application phase of the workshop, each participant put the collected materials into the compost bin and a hot composting application was carried out in the light of the principles explained in the theoretical training part. With this practice, 20 kg of organic waste generated in our campus areas was recycled.
After the application, the compost prepared using the food and garden wastes of our university in May was presented to the participants to use in their planting activities in their gardens and balconies. The workshop ended after the presentation of a certificate of appreciation to Işık BAŞTUĞ, horticulture instructor.
Your good deed of recycling organics is doing more than you think. Recycling organics means less greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. And using compost nourishes the soil. Our soils then return the favor with healthier food, cleaner water, richer biodiversity and reduced climate change impacts. Thank you for doing your best.
