Hello!

This semester has been crazy! We are expanding quickly and have been particpating in a number of activities around campus and the community. Here are just a few pictures of what has been going on during the past couple months.

Above: Employees Sarah, Taryn, and Noelle (left to right) explain the importance of composting at Food Day.

Above: Noelle and Rachel (left to right) present with Taryn and Polly (not pictured) at UA's student showcase.

Above: Jessica and Taryn (left to right) educate shoppers at the St. Phillip's Farmer's Market about Compost Cats. We are now collecting food waste from the farmer's market every Sunday: look for our green trash cans!

Above: Picture taken from our first compost site tour at the Campus Agricultural Center. Taryn and Sarah (left to right) demonstrate how food waste is added to our windrows.

Above: Our compost piles! The pile on the left is the youngest and the pile on the right is the oldest.

Thanks for reading and look for another update soon!

So, we are famous now: two newspaper articles in one week! Our group was featured in UA News and the Daily Wildcat, below are the links to the articles.

http://uanews.org/node/42370

http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/index.php/article/2011/10/one_persons_trash_is_these_students_treasure

Much has happened since September – we have expanded to more off-campus businesses, gave our first on-site tour, participated in Food Day, presented at the Southern Arizona Environmental Management Society symposium, and are preparing for a student showcase.

If you would like to know, here is a list of businesses that we partner with off site:

Bentley's House of Coffee & Tea
Raging Sage Coffee Roasters
Coffee X-Change
Lovin' Spoonfuls
Subway
Alberstons’
Elle
Beyond Bread
Cartel Coffee
Sous Chef

And the list keeps growing! If you know any companies around UA that would like to join our program, please have them contact Chet Phillips, our Graduate Assistant for Sustainability, at cfp@email.arizona.edu.

Until next time,
Rachel

Compost Cats Logo

Hi Everyone,

We have hired two new Compost Technicians:  Taryn Contento and Noelle Espinosa

Patrick graduated in May and we hope all his dreams come true!  Good luck Patrick!

We will officially be branding in the near future as we have gotten our logo approved and here it is...

We'll put a list up of the places we are are collaborating with in Tucson soon.

However, I will tell you a little inside secret... we will be trying our hand at post-consumer food collection with the new UA Student Union Memorial Center restaurant, Sabor.  Because there could be a problem with getting a large student body to participate in separating food scraps from non-compostable products, it was decided that a restaurant that buses tables would be a viable alternative option.

AZ Daily Star Article

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/education/college/article_96249108-8cb9-5465-b47a-eb3500f719cf.html

We were in the AZ Daily Star this Sunday (read the article above).

Also, we are officially changing our name from "Compost Go-Live" to "Compost Cats" (a tribute to our mascot the "Arizona Wildcats" - "Compost Cats" was chosen by the group in Spring 2010).  The blog site will still be under http://compostgolive.blogspot.com/ because it cannot be changed.

Additionally, we have a logo and we should be posting it very soon (as soon as it is approved).

Have a great monsoon week!

We've Expanded Beyond Campus!

Hi Everyone, Last Thursday (April 7) marked our first successful foray into the world of compost collection beyond the University of Arizona grounds. I received a phone call from Raging Sage's manager about an hour before my afternoon shift and Sarah and I were able to stop by on the way to the compost pile and pick up 182 pounds of coffee grounds! We've worked out a twice a week schedule to start with, every Monday and Thursday afternoon. I also hear from Maura that she has had success getting Wilko lined up!

We got funding!

So, a lot has happened since late February!

For starters our team traveled to Sierra Vista in the beginning of March to take a tour of their composting facility. They windrow compost landscape clippings from around the city. All the employees were very friendly and fed us a FREE lunch!

Compost Cats Team in front of The City of Sierra Vista's GIANT compost turner. This turner travels down the windrows turning the piles to increase aeration and moisture content.

Sarah and Alex standing near the screener that produces the fine textured compost.

If you want to learn more about Sierra Vista's composting program go to the following site: http://www.sierravistaaz.gov/department/division.php?fDD=18-251

Also, on March 8th our team was awarded a grant from the UA GREEN FUND for around $58,000. This grant will be used to continue our project next year! So, far this semester has been pretty successful!

Well, we will update you soon, thanks for reading.

We started composting!

Hi!

Sorry it has taken so long to update you! But this past semester has been really busy. Alex, Polly, and I have been running around campus trying to get all the details finalized to start composting at The University of Arizona. We added a new member to our team, Chet Philips: our graduate assistant for sustainability. He has helped us out so much and we owe a lot of our successes to him.

Here is a quick summary of everything that has happened in the past four months:

1. The compost project got approved! UA will compost pre-consumer food from the Student Union, green waste from Facilities Management, and horse manure from the campus farm. Our hard work and dedication was recognized in the Arizona Daily Wildcat:

http://wildcat.arizona.edu/news/campus-dirty-dealings-1.1824299

Picture of Alex, Polly, and I at the Campus Agriculture Center - site for the university's windrow composting system.

2. We hired 5 student workers to collect the pre-consumer food waste from the union, transport it to the Agriculture Center, and maintain the windrows. Our new employees are Patrick, Jessica, Andie, Maura, and Sarah. We are very excited they joined our team!

3. On January 31^st, 2011 we started composting! We started collecting food waste from the union and facilities management dropped off green waste to the composting site. All the hard work paid off and UA became the first student organized and student employed composting university in the nation: how exciting.

Hope that gets you up to date and look forward to more posts (on a regular basis).

Thanks for reading!