‘For People and Planet’ Promotes Accessible Composting On Campus 

The Honors College “For People and Planet” student organization seeks to improve student access to sustainability resources while empowering students’ personal environmental activism. The club started and currently operates out of the Honors college, but is open to all students. 

“I felt this urge to leave an impact and this club was the opportunity to make that happen,” club president and English and Film student Ashley Hale said. “For me, these conversations about sustainability have been the biggest advantage.” 

Formerly known as “The Flood” named after flooding inboxes with invitations and education surrounding environmentalism and events, For People and Planet switched towards hands-on activism rather than petitioning their local representatives. 

Before the action can begin, these conversations start in a typical Honors seminar classroom with tables and chairs formed in a circle. The only “noise” in the room after classes ended April 23 is lime signage wishing the crowd of five students a happy belated Earth Day on the projector screen. The conversation that ensued seemed counterintuitive to the message. 

“I currently live in an apartment complex and in those fire escapes and stairwells there’s trash everywhere,” Sabrina Arassi told Media Milwaukee. 

Arassi studies Neuroscience and lives across from the Union on Kenwood and Maryland Avenues. 

Environmental Science major and student officer Kristin Huelsbeck echoed the same sentiment about her apartment stairwell living on Cramer Street. 

Arassi described her hometown as a place where climate change was controversial. Her parents chided her about not eating snow because “things are different now, we have pollution.” The climate disasters that frequented the news stuck with her. Arassi attributes litter on and near campus to the college culture and different levels of education on environmentalism since UWM draws students from all over Wisconsin and internationally. 

One of the ways For People and Planet promotes their mission and differentiates themselves from Conservation Club, another environmental student organization on campus, is in the execution. 

“We’re essentially giving people the space to schedule time for activism. It’s not that I heard about this on a poster, I’ll go do it. This is a way to schedule being involved in the process of making activism happen,” Jack Koshkin, a student officer double majoring in Anthropology and Music Composition and Technology. 

For People and Planet, every semester hones in on different sustainability practices under one theme chosen by members and student officers alike. The goal is to create a personal lifestyle change that can be implemented in a student’s everyday life and post-graduation.

“It’s more about learning how to research, planning environmental and political activist behavior so that when students graduate they have already stepped into that role,” Hale explained. 

This April’s theme was the effectiveness and education of composting. 

Commonplace dorm or college student items including take-out cardboard boxes, any food container that has food debris that cannot be washed away, batteries or electronics, and even plastic bags, cannot be recycled per City of Milwaukee guidelines. 

For those living in Sandburg, the Café does not put food waste in compost bins due to non-compostable materials being contaminated in the trash, according to the UWM Office of Sustainability website. With the help of off-campus partner Compost Crusader, compost is collected from the Sandburg Café Dining Hall and from UWM’s 20/20 Catering. Restaurant Operations continue to compost the website reads. 

The Office of Sustainability suggests the following compostable materials including cardboard, coffee grounds without a filter, egg shells, and fresh fruit and vegetable scraps. 

The City of Milwaukee Sanitation Services advises compost bins to be commercial-grade material including heavy-duty plastic, cinder block, brick or wood and must include a hood, perp City Ordinances. Each spring, the City of Milwaukee hosts a composting bin sale. Residents can pre-order their bin by May 19 and pick it up June 1 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. 

While the City of Milwaukee Sanitation Services website encourages composting, it comes at a price. The city provides free drop-offs for yard waste including leaves and grass, but outsources compost. Compost Crusader takes 32 to/or 64 gallon carts of waste monthly and annual billing virtually. Curby’s Compost charges monthly ranging from $8.95 for a two-gallon plastic container to two five-gallon containers for $17.75. or/up to five gallon buckets. Waste Not provides five-gallon buckets for four dollars per week. 

BrewCity Compost loans 4-gallon compost buckets to local businesses and residents, processing the waste into soil for $20 per month or $240 dollars annually. For the annual subscription, the company throws in a stainless steel kitchen countertop container with a carbon filter, but this offer won’t entice those paying tuition. 

“For People and Planet” direct students to earth-conscious resources including composting bins available for students to borrow free of charge known as “Panther Pails.”

“Panther Pails” are to be borrowed on a first-come first-serve basis. Students sign out the pail, plastic black bins with yellow lids, via a sign-up sheet outside the Hoop House, a structural greenhouse with a tarp roof, located behind Sandburg. The Office of Sustainability composts and processes the collected waste for students for free out of the Hoop House and in partnership with Compost Crusader. 

For People and Planet has put on these previous events to spread awareness of environmentalism on and off campus for students without worrying about affordability or transportation.

Earlier this year, the E-waste or electronic waste drive started in November ran for 4 weeks. Disposal boxes for discarded batteries, computers, chargers, and phones were located in the Union and in the Honors House. E-waste was disposed of at a city drop-off near the Domes. Student office Kristin Huelsbeck started receiving email inquiries about the drive and posters promoted the event in the Union. 

“Having the poster up makes people aware that you should be recycling your electronics and that you can do it in Milwaukee,” Hale said. “We spread awareness that way, plant a seed in their mind, even if people don’t donate to the drive.” Hale said. 

For People and Planet partnered with The Honors College Alternative Spring Break Club and the Equity Team to serve at the Amani Neighborhood Earth Day clean-up earlier this month. 30 students attended the clean-up and the Honors College partnered with the Dominican Center. 

The Dominican Center located at 24th and Locust engages and empowers Amani Neighborhood residents reporter Tony Atkins said in a promotional video for the center. 

The organization houses a basement hydroponic farm growing produce for residents that focuses on intersecting food, education, vocational training and financial sustainability,” Dominican Center Executive Director Maricha Harris said. 

“People get really overwhelmed with the state of our world with this mentality of one person isn’t going to do anything, but we have this club that works towards something every week to meet with like-minded people,” Hale said. 

For People and Planet hopes to run another e-waste drive starting in September, co-sponsor another environmental film series with a discussion afterwards with Union Cinema and provide more accessible opportunities for conservation for UWM students and the surrounding community. 

Student officer Jack Koshin encourages students to participate: 

“There’s more inaction than any one person or small group of people can combat. Some people look at it as hopeless, but I look at it as you need to keep going. If it seems as though no amount of collective effort that’s finally going to win the battle that means there’s more to be done. I don’t see the point in throwing your hands up.”

For People and Planet’s meeting on April 30 is a campus clean-up picking up trash and recyclables near apartments and duplexes filled with college renters specifically on Maryland Avenue.