In the spring of 2022, Beth launched a pilot collecting food scraps around campus from most student houses along Broad Street, using her own vehicle. She then asked the Facilities Department if she could use one of their golf carts to pick up the scrap buckets from the seven fraternities and sororities participating in the pilot. When that proved not to be an option, Beth had an idea one day while walking by the Athletics Department, when she saw an empty golf cart that wasn’t in use. She asked if she could use it to collect food scraps around campus, and they agreed.

One year later and this collaboration for the greater good between Beth Roy and Colgate University’s Sustainability Office has blossomed and is going strong. Five-gallon buckets of food scraps are now collected weekly and taken to the Community Garden, where they’re then used to fertilize the garden beds. “Campus houses and apartments with fewer residents can also be provided with a compost tumbler on site that is emptied as needed,” according to Colgate’s Waste Minimization and Recycling webpage. Colgate was also just awarded a grant to help purchase their own electric golf cart for the compost program. The funding is through the NYSAR3 and NYSP2I College Council grant program, and the University is excited about how this will help strengthen its composting efforts. To date, they’ve collected and composted over 4,000 lbs of food scraps since starting the program last spring.