Section A·Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, September 2, 1998
Restaurant waste gets a second life
Recycling program extends usefulness of leftover cuisine
By Liz Wristen
By Liz Wrister
Kansan staff writer
Leftover black bean quesadillas, remnants of vegetable penne and dollops of guacamole dip will never see a landfill if Chuck Magerl has anything to say about it.
it. Magerl, the owner of Free State Brewery, 636 Massachusetts St., has been composting meal leftovers and paper products from his restaurant for the past two years. He began the waste treatment program because of his concern for future generations with regard to the environment.
"I think that most people don't think about or care about something when they are done with it," Magerl said. "It's the out of sight, out of mind kind of thing, and even if landfills have free space, they still have limited capability."
Megan Pope, Wichita junior, said that she ate at Free State often and that she appreciated knowing that what was left on her plate was put to good use.
"I think that Free State is a really good restaurant, and I'm really glad that they choose to compost their leftovers," she said.
Magerl has operated Free State Brewery for nearly 10 years. His knowledge of composting and natural resource conservation began when he was a pre-med biology student at the University of Kansas.
He left the University before graduating and became the manager of the Community Mercantile, 901 Mississippi St., where he learned about natural vegetation. Magerl returned to the University to obtain a degree in water resources before opening the brewery in February 1989.
Magerl has been composting household waste for the past 20-25 years as a part of his daily life. Now, he incorporates composting into his business life as well.
"By taking the materials, like vegetation, using them and then returning them to the earth through composting, we are helping the soil, as well as completing a biological and energy cycle," Magerl said.
Composting at the brewery began after Magerl remodeled and expanded the restaurant's kitchen. The expansion allowed him to install a piece of equipment, called a pulper, which replaced the garbage disposal.
The pulper acted like a giant food processor, Magerl said. It takes waste materials, such as food and paper products, and chops them into smaller pieces. The pieces are then run through a water removal process that extracts most of the liquids and then ejects a moist, chopped waste product. The waste product is then dumped into large trash containers before being removed from the building.
The waste is loaded into Magerl's truck and is taken to a farm on the east side of Lawrence, where it is unloaded at the site and dumped into the ground. Magerl said he unloads 250 to 300 pounds of compost material daily.
"The focus of composting is the idea of completing a cycle, so that what we are doing in the food business is associated with agricultural products," Magerl said.
The idea to compost leftovers from the brewery came when Magerl met John Pendleton, a family farmer and the owner of Pendleton's Country Market, 1446 E. 1850 Road. Pendleton told Magerl he had space set aside for composting, and the restaurant owner took him up on the offer.
Magerl said that he did not get paid to compost on the Pendleton farm but that he did save money by composting.
When the city of Lawrence recently started cardboard recycling efforts, Magerl was able to save on the amount of boxes he was sending to the landfills.
Through composting and recycling cardboard, Magerl has reduced the amount of his waste flow to the landfills by nearly 80 percent.
"We are hoping to achieve the recognition that alternatives do exist for managing our natural resources," Magerl said. "We need to value those resources through preservation, and not treat the waste as trash."
Above: Chuck Magerl, owner of Free State Brewery, 636 Massachusetts St., begins the composting process by gathering food pieces in the pulper. The pulper takes the place of a garbage disposal and starts a process that ends with Magerl unloading 250 to 300 pounds of compost material daily at a local farm to continue the cycle. Left: After being run through a water removal machine, which extracts most of the liquids, the waste product is dumped into large trash containers and removed from the building. Photo by Kate Levenson/KANSAN
Ballroom dancing enjoys an upswing
More KU students learn to cut a rug
By Angela Johnson
Kansan staff writer
Students are getting into the swing of things.
The ballroom dancing club, now in its fourth year of giving free dance lessons, has seen participation double since last year, said club instructor Abby Kepka.
"The first time we met (this year), over 100 people came," she said.
why is there a growing popularity in ballroom dancing on campus? It is mainly due to the revival of swing music, Jamie Rocks, Chicago senior, said.
"Music always has a way of coming back around, like fashion," Rocks said. "It's come back because the music makes people feel good. The swing bands today just undate it with our technology."
Rocks attended last Sunday's ballroom dancing club for the first time. She said learning how to swing dance wasn't difficult.
"It's just so fun," she said. "I'm not that good of a dancer, but I'm doing better than I did country-line dancing. The music just
lifts mv spirits."
Students can join the club for free at anytime during the semester, Kepka said. The club meets from 2 to 4 p.m. Sundays in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
Kepka said that the club taught all types of formal dancing. The club teaches more than ballroom dancing.
"We teach swing, the cha-cha, the rumba, the waltz and the fox trot," Kepka said.
but swing has been used in Club instructor Tesla Hostetler said that current bands, such as Squirrel Nut Zippers and The Cherry Poppin' Daddies, were a major influence on the new swing
movement and that the media had made the dance visible again.
But swing has been the thing.
"We have a lot of people who come in and want to try swamp because they've seen a movie with swing dancing in it, or they've seen the GAP commercial." Hosteller said.
interaction. "People are tired of dancing alone and not knowing what they're doing," Kepka said. "The occasional bump and grind will bring people together temporarily, but with swing dancing, you can meet new people and have fun."
Kepka said that a fairly even number of men and women came to dance but that guys generally were more reluctant to join.
Tesia Hostetler, Topeka senior, gives a few tips about ballroom dancing to Michelle Kensella, Olathe senior, and Dan Farmer, a recent graduate from Olathe. The three were part of a ballroom dancing class Sunday in the Kansas Union Ballroom. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN
"Everyone's learning together," she said. "It's a whole room of people starting out, and most people don't come in with a partner."
Hostetler said students do not need any prior dancing experience or a partner to join.
semester progressed.
"Large groups of people are always coming and going." Moore said. "As the semester goes on, schoolwork gets harder. People have other stuff to do. By the middle of the semester, we usually have a good group who's going to stick with it."
Club instructor Mike Moore said that participation usually dropped as the semester progressed.
The ballroom dancing class, offered in the Health, Sport and Exercise Science department, has also been popular with students.
"Girls are taught to dance more than guys," she said. "Guys are usually wooden. There are some who will come out here and just start dancing. Others will take all semester, then one day they'll just get it."
Jim LaPoint, associate professor of Health Sport and Exercise Science, said the class was full this semester and last semester.
it's up to young people to keep swing dancing alive, Kepka said.
"For some reason, we only had one section of the class this semester, and it has closed," LaPoint said. "Last semester, we had three sections, and they were all closed with 50 or more students."
"If senior citizens are the only people swing dancing, it won't survive," she said. "If you learn the technical aspects of it, you can dance with anybody. Nobody can say they can't dance. We all have the underlying ability. We're all exhibitionists."
Black Union battles issues facing race in the future
By Steph Brewer Kansan staff writer
They formed the organization at the height of the civil rights movement, a time of intense racism and
It's been 30 years this September since a group of African-American students at the University of Kansas first combined their efforts to form the Black Student Union.
political activity
The University's current African-American students are in a different environment. They battle issues that are not as clear
cut as those of their predecessors. One of their main problems in recent years has been apathy. This year, the group is looking to change that.
when this was started in 1968, you definitely saw there was a need for it on campus," said the group's Vice President Conway Ekpo, Lawrence senior.
The group's adviser Julius Williams said when he was a college student in the late 1960s, African-American students could not even walk into the school cafeteria without feeling self-conscious. He said all the students would stop talking and stare.
"When the Black students walked in, you could hear a pin drop at the back of the cafeteria," he said.
Ekpo said the issues minorities face today, such as economic inequality, are sometimes less obvious than the overt racism African-Americans faced every day in the 1960s.
"After we got ourselves established, that level of consistency was fine," said the group's Trea
surer DeLano Sheffield, Topeka senior. "With all that in part, there are still problems."
One of the problems is the ambiguity of some of those issues.
"The students that are coming in now are more serious about taking care of business."
"I think the issues are still there, but they're not as straight for ward any more," said
Dion Jones BSU president
the group's President Dion Jones,
St. Croix, Virgin Islands, senior.
The apathy that BSU has encountered has meant low membership, another issue the group will tackle this year. And if one were to judge by its first meeting, the group has been successful.
Ekpo said in 1995 that attendance at the group's meetings hovered near 12-15 people. At the first meeting of this year, held Monday night, he estimated there were 100.
The leaders are hopeful that their freshmen members will help turn around the organization.
"The students that are coming in now are more serious about taking care of business," Jones said.
Freshmen and sophomore members will be more involved in the group this year with the reinstitute of the residence hall chapters.
Monica Lewis, Kansas City, Kan., freshman, is involved in the group's government at Hashinger Hall. She said the branch governments should help attract freshmen to the organization.
In the early 1990s, Ekpo said the individual residence halls had African-American hall caucuses with their own representatives who relayed information to the group's government. The program ended about four or five years ago. Leaders hope that restarting this program will induce younger members to take an active role in the organization.
we just need to get people involved and keep them involved," she said.
when they go through the whole process of planning an event, they take ownership in it," Jones said.
Ekpo said he noticed the difference between the group at the University and the organizations at other schools at an annual Big 12 Black Student Union conference.
"In the past, all the other schools seemed to have an obvious love and devotion to their BSUs," he said.
At Monday's meeting, Ekpo led chants in an attempt to energize and unite the members.
Jones said African-American students needed to be united to provide a support system for one another.
"We should be taking care of each other," he said, "providing the home-away-from-home feeling."