Written by: Rania Keona Aji
Edited by: Shasta Kansakar
This summer, AP House residents were introduced to a new student-led composting project, namely, PosPos. Miho Nakayama, Wakana Inoue and Yae Nagata are first-year APS students who are behind this green initiative. PosPos essentially converts food scraps collected from the residents of AP house and composts them in their garden in Hiji.
Images: Food scraps collected at AP House, PosPos member gardening at Hiji (from PosPos team)
Before PosPos
One of the founders, Miho, was inspired to make a change after visiting Kamikatsu in Tokushima Prefecture. They are well-known for being the first municipality in Japan to implement a Zero-Waste policy and thus have established an elaborate garbage disposal system where waste is separated into 45 categories. Miho, too, aspired to contribute to such zero-waste initiatives. Hence, she started PosPos to encourage students to rethink their usual view on waste and change their waste disposal habits. Seeing that food waste can be recycled into compost, the team believes that PosPos can be the starting step to contribute to the future of garbage disposal.
Image: schedule and preliminary data (from PosPos Team)
So, what is composting?
Composting is the transformation of organic matter such as food waste, into a nutrient-rich fertilizer which is simply referred to as compost. Not only does composting lessen the amount of waste sent to landfills, it can also enrich and help the soil retain more water. When food waste ends up at landfills, they undergo a different type of decomposition which releases
methane and carbon dioxide, which both contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. For this reason, even AP House residents can play a role in helping the environment by repurposing their food waste through PosPos!
Image: Compost garden in Hiji (Images from Karina Viella Darminto)
From AP House to Hiji
The PosPos workflow starts when the team collects food waste from AP house residents. In their preliminary run, weekly food waste volumes reached 15 litres and even increased up to 20.5 litres. Next, the waste gets transported to a dedicated area in a field in Hiji, where it is crushed and mixed with the surrounding soil. The PosPos team has grown an impressive variety of produce, from broccoli and cabbage to strawberries and herbs. So what happens to these produce? “So far, we have been asking people who come to help us in the fields to take home some vegetables as a thank you,” the team explained.
Image: Vegetables grown in the garden at Hiji (from PosPos team)
Still a long way to go
As with all projects, there are challenges ahead. Although the team expressed their ambition to set up an intermediate processing plant at AP House, they have not been given the green light to do so as they have not made any long-term plans. This hinders their hopes to increase the volume of food scraps collected at AP House. The team also hopes that composting can be incorporated in the dorm’s daily cleaning routine. However, they realise that it could increase the workload for RAs and students who have no interest in the matter. Moreover, PosPos aspires to expand outside AP House, so that students continue to compost even after leaving the dorms.
Although the PosPos team receives a lot of compliments for their efforts, students still do not feel as if they are part of the cause. However, they believe that reducing a small amount of garbage still contributes to the bigger impact of waste on the environment. As a final remark the team expressed, “We will continue to do our best so that we can take action before small problems become big ones and we have no choice but to act.”
To stay updated with PosPos, be sure to follow them on Instagram @apu_compospos.
Picture credits: PosPos team and Karina Viella Darminto.
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