According to Ohio State's Sustainability Goals (put out by the Sustainability Institute at OSU), the university wants to divert 90% of waste away from landfills by 2025. And while there has been steady change in the right direction for several years, it's time for the university to really commit to this goal by investing in composting.

Existing composting facilities in Columbus are currently unable to handle all of the compostable waste OSU creates, which is understandable since we are such a large university. Some waste is currently composted at some of these facilities, but we couldn't send all our compostable waste to them. That's why we're proposing that OSU create an internal composting facility that could handle at least a significant portion of our waste.

The main setbacks of investing in composting, according to OSU staff that have considered other plans in the past, is that a) there isn't enough student support, and b) it costs too much. We're addressing (a) with this petition, and we think (b) could be solved in several ways, including by finding donors that would like to invest in a composting facility at one of the biggest universities in the United States, which we think wouldn't be hard given the current state of environmental action in the country and popularity of "green" solutions. Doesn't The Tom W. Davis Composting Facility have a nice ring to it?

If you'd like to show the university that there is significant student support for composting at Ohio State, please join us by signing this petition.