{"id":320,"date":"2023-05-09T13:45:58","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T13:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/?p=320"},"modified":"2025-02-10T20:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T20:44:11","slug":"weigh-the-waste-april-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/2023\/05\/09\/weigh-the-waste-april-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Weigh the Waste \u2014 April, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Eco Ambassador Katie Koenig<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final Weigh the Waste event of the year took place on April 26, Stop Food Waste Day<\/a>. Eco Ambassadors ran the usual routine\u2014tables out upstairs and downstairs with labeled, plastic tubs for weighing waste during the dining period\u2014one last time before the end of the school year. This time, we also gave out Clean Plate Club stickers to diners who threw out no edible food waste!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, despite the progress of reducing individuals\u2019 food waste throughout the year, this time we exceeded even the first semester\u2019s amount of waste. Although this is somewhat understandable with the chaos of move-out and finals, this is still a disheartening result considering students\u2019 recent reductions in food waste. We encourage everyone to think carefully about food waste this summer and come back in the fall ready to get our numbers back down!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Total waste in pounds from each Weigh the Waste event during the 2022-2023 academic year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In total, students threw out 162 pounds of waste between 6:30 and 8:00 pm while the event was going. That\u2019s 54.6 pounds more waste than during the first Weigh the Waste event this academic year, in December, and over 80 pounds more waste than last month. Each student threw out over two ounces of edible waste on average, an increase of 0.8 ounces of edible waste per capita compared to March. All other categories of waste\u2014inedible compost, liquid waste, and trash\u2014increased at least 0.2 ounces per capita compared to March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to our survey results taken during this event, the main reason students threw out food was that they were served too much food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top two reasons behind students\u2019 waste were getting served too much at about 35% of responses and having inedible waste at about 20%. However, a very close third at 19% of responses was that students simply didn\u2019t like their food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Survey responses for each Weigh the Waste event during the 2022-2023 academic year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of course, it\u2019s not helpful to force yourself to eat food that you hate, but asking the serving staff in the dining hall for just a taste will let you try a dish without wasting an entire serving. This also helps when you serve yourself too much\u2014this being the reason behind about 16% of respondents\u2019 waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only serve yourself as much as you know you\u2019ll eat, and if you don\u2019t like it, you\u2019ll have to throw out a much smaller portion. For some items, like pre-sliced cake and pie, it\u2019s impossible to get smaller servings even if you serve yourself, but splitting desserts with friends or asking to try a bite of what they get before you serve yourself can still help reduce your waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hold Weigh the Waste events not only to collect data but to help everyone take the time to think about their food waste, and the sheer quantity of perfectly good food that gets thrown away. Overall, take the time to enjoy your summers and the great weather, but keep in mind your eating habits even at home, being mindful of what you eat and what you throw away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re excited to see everyone back on campus in the fall, hopefully returning to March\u2019s encouraging waste results! Get ready to earn that Clean Plate Club badge! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eco Ambassador Katie Koenig The final Weigh the Waste event of the year took place on April 26, Stop Food Waste Day. Eco Ambassadors ran the usual routine\u2014tables out upstairs and downstairs with labeled, plastic tubs for weighing waste during the dining period\u2014one last time before the end of the school year. This time, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2728,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,9,11],"tags":[39],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-sustainable-dining","category-waste","tag-by-katie-koenig"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2728"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}