With each crumb of uneaten food, the University is gradually building a sustainable and healthy environment for Ann Arbor residents.

The University is looking to expand its composting efforts, specifically from leftover food at dining halls on campus. The University’s Waste Management Services engage in pre-consumer composting by collecting food waste that is produced during meal preparation and recycling it from almost all dining halls, two campus coffee shops and one of the University catering kitchens, according to Tracy Artley, the University’s Plant Building and Grounds Services sustainability programs coordinator.

The composting program began in 1997 after the University received a $19,000 grant from Washtenaw County’s “Green Backs for Green Acts” program. The initiative was created in response to the city’s worries about the water treatment plant, Artley wrote in an e-mail interview.

“The impetus for it was concern that (the University) was contributing too many nutrients to the city's waste water treatment plant, causing problems there,” Artley wrote. “Offering the pre-consumer program was a great way to alleviate this issue while creating a nutrient-rich soil amendment.”

Instead of throwing away unused food, Artley said the program hopes to reuse it in a productive way.

“The goal of our pre-consumer food waste composting program is to divert vegetative prep waste from the landfill and waste water treatment plant, by way of the garbage disposal, and have it turned into a useful product,” Artley wrote.

Betsy Barbour, East Quad, Mary Markley, South Quad and West Quad residence halls have dining halls that currently use pre-consumer waste composting. Food waste in the dining halls is mixed with wood chips and is arranged so that air can circulate and the produce can decompose more efficiently, according to Artley.

Dining hall employees test the food waste after it has decomposed to see if it can be used as fertilizer or soil, according to the University’s Plant Operations website.

The program has been “very successful to date,” Artley wrote, and the University delivered more than 60 tons of food waste to Ann Arbor’s compost site in 2010.

“I think the program has been very effective,” she wrote. “We continue to collect vegetative prep waste from our campus participants and have ongoing interest from potential new customers as well.”

Looking toward the future, Artley said her department hopes to delve into post-consumer composting, which would focus on composting remaining food on consumers’ plates like apple cores and banana peels.

“There is great interest both in our department and beyond for a post-consumer food waste composting program as well,” she wrote.

LSA junior Angeles Meneses, who lived in the residence halls her freshman and sophomore years, said she believes post-consumer waste recycling would be “a good step to going green,” especially in the residence halls.

“People end up getting stuff on their trays that they end up not wanting, and it becomes a big deal, especially with as many students who live in the dorms,” Menses said.

She added that she thinks such a program would enhance existing residence hall practices like recycling.

LSA senior Jaclyn Silverman, who is an Environmental Studies major and frequented the dining halls her freshman year, said she believes post-consumer waste composting is something that should be instituted immediately for residence halls. She added that she was surprised the University didn’t already have a post-consumer waste system in place.