Waste Reduction Methods

By Shannon Burke, Heather Cruddas, Cathy Huang, and Cat Marks

April 22, 2014

40% of America’s food is wasted

from farm to fork to landfill

Source: http://www.nrdc.org/food/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf

Today, we will focus on refusing, repurposing, reusing and reducing waste.

Source: FSM 122 Sustainability lecture slides

Source Reduction or “Precycling”

“When you avoid making garbage in the first place, you don’t have to worry about disposing of waste or recycling it later.”

http://www.reduce.org

Source Reduction

Waste Audit● Where is the waste coming from?

Sources of waste:● Recyclable and compostable items● Expired food● Improperly prepared food● Uneaten food/over portioning

http://www.sustainablefoodservice.com/cat/waste.htm

The best way to reduce waste is not to produce it in the first place

Source ReductionPackaging:

● 70% of volume● Reusable and refillable containers● Reduce packaging

○ bulk itemsPlating

● Avoiding unnecessary items● Offer versus Serve● Trayless Cafeteria

Davis Joint Unified School District

● Saved $● Reduced waste

http://www.sustainablefoodservice.com/cat/waste.htm

http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/ReduceWaste/Schools/Food/

Reduce: avoiding over-portioning, allowing customers to customize their orders to prevent waste

Reuse: reusable containers for food storage and purchasing

Refuse: not using food products that create a lot of waste

Repurpose: using a food product’s packaging for food storage

Cons of Waste Reduction

● Using reusable dishware will increase water use

● Takes time and money to train employees● Higher initial costs● Higher probability of contamination

Training

Current Knowledge

Target Knowledge

TRAINING

SUCCESS!!

UC System● UC policy commitments:

○ By 2020 the University has pledged to:■ achieve zero waste

● UC medical centers now save more than $3 million annually through waste reduction and energy efficient initiatives.

■ purchase 20% sustainable food● In 2013, UCLA and UCSF Medical Centers joined the residential

dining services at Berkeley, Davis, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Santa Barbara’s retail dining operation, in surpassing the 2020 goal of procuring at least 20% sustainable food.

http://sustainability.universityofcalifornia.edu/policy.html

According to 2013 Annual Reports, the policy goals were to:● Divert 75% of waste from landfill by 2012 and achieve zero waste by

2020.● Educate both patrons and staff about sustainable food products and

sustainable operations● Prioritize waste reduction in the following order:

○ reduce, reuse, recycleAchievements:● Davis, Irvine, Riverside, and Santa Barbara achieved their goal of

diverting at least 75% of their municipal solid waste (trash) from landfills by the end of FY 2012-13 (including C&D waste).

http://sustainability.universityofcalifornia.edu/documents/annual-sustainability-report2013.pdf

Waste Reduction Methods across Campuses

● Berkeley, Davis, and Santa Barbara have made many of their large sporting events zero waste, which have a potentially large educational impact

● Berkeley’s Lean Path Waste Reduction program provides pre-consumer waste summaries, allowing dining hall teams to pinpoint 5 food categories with the highest disposal volume

● Merced’s Green Container initiative eliminated disposable take-out containers from the dining commons, now reusable containers are offered

http://sustainability.universityofcalifornia.edu/documents/annual-sustainability-report2013.pdf

UC Davis

UCD is aiming to have zero waste by the year 2020. Zero waste=completely avoiding sending trash to landfills.

http://sustainability.ucdavis.edu/progress/waste_reduction/

UC Davis

Voted #1 Cool School 2012-2013 by Sierra Magazine

http://sustainability.ucdavis.edu/progress/commitment/cool_school/cool_facts.html

UC Davis

During events with food within the residence halls, Student Housing supplies professionally washed reusable plates, cups, bowls, and utensils.

http://sustainability.ucdavis.edu/progress/waste_reduction/

UCD Dining Services UC Davis Dining Services utilizes various methods to help prevent waste.

● Waste Audits: 2 quarterly waste audits are done at each dining common. The average food waste decreased by 30% from Fall 2012 to Spring 2013 (from 2.56 oz./person to 1.82 oz./person)!

● Education: “Healthy Planet, Healthy Me” is the sustainability education program facilitated by UCD Dining Services to promote sustainable living to students eating in the dining commons

● Trayless: The dining commons no longer use trays, in hopes that students will only grab one plate, instead of a few plates of food, to prevent waste

● Try-a-Taste: UCD Dining Services encourages students to try a meal if they are unsure if they would like it

● Just Ask: the dining commons also encourage students to ask when they want to customize their meal

● Portion Control: employees are trained to serve a certain portion size on each plate, unless they are fulfilling a Just Ask request

● Napkins: the dining commons no longer put the napkin dispensers on each table to prevent overuse of napkins

● Food Recovery Network: collects and donates over-produced foods from the dining commons to community members in need

● Lean Path: helps UCD Dining reduce pre-consumer waste by weighing food production losses in order to recognize which items they can produce or order less of

http://dining.ucdavis.edu/sus-recycling.html

http://dining.ucdavis.edu/documents/UCDavisSustainableFoodserviceProgressReport-2013.pdf

Discussion