Department: Student Life Facilities and Sustainability
Certification Level: Silver
Certification Date: June 6, 2024
The Office of Student Life Green Buckeyes program and Facilities Operations and Development (FOD) are proud to announce that front-of-house composting is available at the Ohio Union! While back-of-house food waste diversion has been operational since the building opened, this pilot program being launched is the first time we’re able to offer a front-of-house food diversion option. This program would not be possible without the cooperation of many Student Life departments, including the Ohio Union, Student Life Dining Services and Student Life Facilities.
The program is meant to determine any issues that may arise by offering food waste diversion at a building that sees more than 100,000 visitors a day. These visitors vary vastly, from students to staff to faculty, as well as hundreds of guests who come to visit Ohio State for any number of reasons. The Ohio Union offers a large variety of food-service options, most of which offer to-go meals that already comes in compostable packaging. So, in addition to dealing with food waste, we are hoping to capture many of those to-go containers as well.
Our composting program started on Jan. 8, 2026 in Woody’s Tavern, a pizza restaurant that’s popular among our students and other guests. Educational efforts will be launched as well, to direct people to which containers they should put their trash into. This program, along with the ability of users to recycle pizza boxes and many other items, could lead Woody’s to become a true Zero Waste operation, with a diversion rate of more than 90%.
Learn more about the Green Buckeye Certification program online.