Biology Pre-Health junior Rowan Sawyer passed a bill within the Student Government Association for the inclusion of crawfish composting on campus. For the general body of Loyola, however, a question remains: what is crawfish composting?
“Composting is natural recycling that makes nutrient-rich soil. Crawfish composting is the same thing, despite them having a tough exterior,” Sawyer said.
According to the Composting Network, composting reduces food waste by transforming waste and food leftovers into nutrients for soil. The process provides not only an eco-friendly planting system, but also reduces the amount of harmful landfill coming from discarded waste.
Sawyer, who was introduced to crawfish composting through an initiative by Keep Louisiana Beautiful, a non-profit sustainability organization in the state, said crawfish exteriors are filled with nutrients that can be broken down to enrich soil.
The shell exteriors contain chitin, a form of glucose that is filled with polysaccharides and other sugars nutritious to soil and helpful towards a plant’s defense system, she said.
As the SGA Speaker of the Senate, Sawyer said she advocated for crawfish composting for Loyola to become an eco-friendlier campus.
For Sawyer, the initiative was eye-opening to understand how other student governments at Louisiana universities handled composting for a healthier environment.
“It felt so special to be able to be part of a conversation surrounding crawfish composting at other universities and then implementing it on my own campus,” Sawyer said.
One event to introduce crawfish composting to the Loyola community is Crawfish in the Quad, an annual spring event put on by the University Programming Board filled with activities, fun, and of course – crawfish.
With a Loyola event like Crawfish in the Quad, Sawyer said that finding an eco-friendly method to dispose of crawfish shells is important to maintaining a clean, sustainable campus.
Renting bins from the Composting Network, Crawfish in the Quad, according to Sawyer, will encourage students to participate with compost changes instead of discarding their crawfish in regular trash bins.
“The composting bins are for all food waste, so we can use them for the potatoes and corn pieces, along with the crawfish,” Sawyer said.
Sawyer said that through crawfish composting, she hopes that students will take the extra time to discard trash and food waste in their respective bins around campus. Sawyer continued by saying that the event encouraged SGA to make crawfish composting a permanent fixture for Loyola.
“We are slowly making strides to become a more eco-friendly campus. Crawfish composting is one big way that SGA is helping Loyola become greener, and I am so glad I was able to bring it to our campus,” she said.