Weigh the Waste- January, 2024

By Sustainability Coordinator, Jacqui Moy

Welcome back, Emersonians, to another semester of Weigh the Waste! On Wednesday, January 24th, Emerson Sustainability Fellows held the first Weigh the Waste event of the spring semester. Like last semester, Sustainability Fellows and staff tabled on both floors of the dining hall from 6:30-8:00pm and helped diners sort their waste into five 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. Bins were weighed and totaled at the end of the night in order to assess how much of each category of waste we have!  

We totaled 84.3lbs of waste for the night, which is right on track with our last Weigh the Waste in November, totalling 84.4lbs. There was a slight increase in ounces of waste per person, increasing from 1.67oz in November to 1.74oz in January. Here’s a breakdown of of the weight by category for each event held this year: 

We also want to thank everyone for filling out our survey after cleaning off their plates! When asked “Why did you throw out food today?”, 31.7% responded that they took too much, 28% reported their waste was inedible, 20.7% were served too much, 14.6% didn’t like the food, and 3.7% ran out of time to eat. Here’s a breakdown of the responses: 

We loved seeing and hearing from you all and look forward to our next Weigh the Waste in February! Don’t forget to participate in our Scouts 4 Sustainability competition running until the end of March. By completing sustainability challenges on the Scavos app (like having a clean plate at Weigh the Waste), you can reduce waste and win awesome prizes like a bluetooth speaker, AMC tickets, and Museum of Science tickets! Read more about it here.