By Sustainability Coordinator Jacqui Moy
On September 27th, Emerson’s student Sustainability Fellows helped kick off the first Weigh the Waste event of the school year! For 90 minutes during dinner, the Fellows and sustainability staff tabled on both floors of the dining hall and set out clear plastic bins to collect diners’ waste. The bins were separated into five different categories: edible food waste (any food leftovers), indelible food waste (i.e. napkins, ice cream bowls, tea bags, paper cups, wooden stirrers, etc.), liquids, trash (plastic utensils, etc.), and recycling. Once the bins were full, we weighed them, and then added all the totals at the end of the night. We also gave out Clean Plate Club stickers to those who had no leftovers! Our waste for the night totaled 137.6 lbs, equaling around 2.49 oz per person. Here’s the breakdown of the weight by categories:
This is an improvement since our last Weigh the Waste event in April, where waste totaled 162 lbs (3.26 oz per person)! We look forward to helping you reduce even more waste during our next event on October 25th.
We also surveyed students as to why they had leftovers on their plates. Around 39% of students replied that they were served too much. This was followed by 26% of students who didn’t like their food, around 16% of students whose waste was inedible, and 15% who took too much food. Small percentages of students responded that they ran out of time to eat or that their food was spoiled. Here’s a breakdown of the responses:
Sorting our waste correctly is a great way to help the environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, when we throw food waste in the landfill, it produces a powerful greenhouse gas called methane. Methane is more than 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere! Thankfully, we can avoid generating methane by disposing of our food waste in compost bins.1 Our food waste then gets turned into energy through anaerobic digestion. That’s why we love to help the Emerson community to stay aware of the waste we’re generating and to reduce our overall impact on the environment! We record this data in order to assess the amount of leftovers we have, why we have them, and how we can help you reduce the amount thrown away.
(You can read about more benefits of composting here and more information about methane here.)
We’ll be back to help you sort your waste every month! Until then, make sure to refer to signage in the dining hall to correctly sort your waste. We want to thank the community for helping us stay mindful of our waste and to make an even more sustainable Emerson. And don’t forget to check out all the events and opportunities there are in October to celebrate Campus Sustainability Month! Here’s a list of the events:
