Closed-loop ⋅ Page 1

Making Black Gold

MU students explore best practices for turning dining hall scraps into nutrient-rich compost.

Last November, Tim Reinbott, superintendent at Bradford Research Center, launched an ambitious project to harness a valuable resource that was being trucked to Columbia’s landfill each day — the leftover lasagna, discarded desserts and other pre-and post-consumer food scraps from nine dining halls on MU’s campus. Two-hundred fifty tons of the stuff was going to the dump every year. The…

Closing the loop

From food waste to compost to fresh vegetables, an innovative recycling program launches at Bradford Research Center

Tim Reinbott, superintendent of Bradford Research Center, is creating a closed-loop system that doesn’t require a single ounce of fossil fuel—once all the components are operational. Reinbott’s “Zero Carbon Footprint Vegetable and Compost Production System” can become a model for other universities, school districts, prisons and even small communities who aspire to turn their waste stream into a productive resource.