Food Waste and Comet Composting

About Comet Composting

The University of Texas at Dallas has evolved its composting program from previously targeting only landscape waste, to including pre- and post-consumer food waste, and now to providing students, staff and faculty the opportunity to compost on campus. Since 2012, UT Dallas has composted over 800,000 lbs. of food waste, diverting 200 metric tonnes of CO² from the atmosphere campus-wide.

• Comet Composting Training >
• Composting Dashboard
• Residential Composting
• Food Service Composting
• Landscape Waste

Composting Dashboard

View our live composting dashboard, created in partnership with Moonshot Composting. This data updates continuously from August 2024 onward.

View Comet Composting totals from 2012 through July 2024 (XLSX [Office Open XML Workbook] ).

Residential Composting

Composting has been on the mind of students for many years. In fall 2018, the UT Dallas Student Government Green Initiative Committee took the lead and collaborated with The Office of Sustainability within Facilities Management and Housing to make the composting program accessible to UTD students living on campus. Beginning in 2024, the Office of Sustainability began a partnership with Moonshot Compost, and compost drop off stations were expanded from three to nine locations, including expanded service to Northside, University Village, residence halls, and the campus core. In order to participate in the program, residents view the online training and complete a short post-quiz. During the training, residents will learn what goes in the compost containers, how to manage individualized food collection caddies. The locations of the compost containers can be found in the Comet Composting training video and in the Comet Composting Packet (PDF [Portable Document Format File] ).

Food Service Composting

Composting is an important part of the campus waste management program that is continuously evolving. Pre-consumer food waste contributions began in 2011 in partnership with Dining Services and Facilities Management. In August 2017, specialized compost containers were installed near kitchen locations, simplifying the pre-consumer food waste collection process. With this new expansion, additional food items became acceptable in the waste stream that were not previously accepted (for example, meat and dairy products), increasing the amount of food waste that is recycled. Currently, Dining Services in partnership with Moonshot Compost has taken the lead and moved all food waste collections to Dining Hall West.

Landscape Waste

Managing a university includes tree and landscape maintenance. When enough wood-based landscape waste is collected, Facilities Management disposes of the waste in a container that is serviced by a third party to be composted.