From Plate to Planet: How ERAU can cut dining hall waste
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
In Person or Zoom Presentation
In-Person
Campus
Daytona Beach
Status
Student
Student Year and Major
2nd year and Aeronautics
Presentation Description/Abstract
Every time a student fills their tray in the dining hall, there’s a chance that food will be left uneaten—and when hundreds of students do this every day, the waste adds up quickly. Across the United States, college campuses discard over 22 million pounds of food annually, mostly due to the “all-you-can-eat” dining norms and oversized portions (Stone Pier Press, “Tackling food waste on college campuses”). Food wastage is also a serious environmental problem: in U.S. landfills, discarded food is estimated to contribute 58 % of fugitive methane emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas, making it an important issue to address (EPA, “Quantifying Methane Emissions from Landfilled Food Waste”). This project will examine how food waste happens at ERAU and look at the solutions that might play out at ERAU by reviewing how other universities have tackled food waste—such as Food donation and offering smaller portion (Hapres, “Strategies to Curb Food Waste on University Campuses”). ERAU is operating trayless dining halls which has reduced food waste. Even though ERAU has programs to reduce food waste, many students don’t know about them or aren’t aware of what the university is doing. I believe that ERAU can reduce food waste through a combination of student education and structural adjustments—small changes such as removing trays or donating surplus food—that benefit both the planet and the campus budget. Ultimately, by turning awareness into action, ERAU can model how student choices in dining halls contribute to global sustainability challenges.
Keywords
Food Waste, College campuses, Landfills, Budget
From Plate to Planet: How ERAU can cut dining hall waste
Every time a student fills their tray in the dining hall, there’s a chance that food will be left uneaten—and when hundreds of students do this every day, the waste adds up quickly. Across the United States, college campuses discard over 22 million pounds of food annually, mostly due to the “all-you-can-eat” dining norms and oversized portions (Stone Pier Press, “Tackling food waste on college campuses”). Food wastage is also a serious environmental problem: in U.S. landfills, discarded food is estimated to contribute 58 % of fugitive methane emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas, making it an important issue to address (EPA, “Quantifying Methane Emissions from Landfilled Food Waste”). This project will examine how food waste happens at ERAU and look at the solutions that might play out at ERAU by reviewing how other universities have tackled food waste—such as Food donation and offering smaller portion (Hapres, “Strategies to Curb Food Waste on University Campuses”). ERAU is operating trayless dining halls which has reduced food waste. Even though ERAU has programs to reduce food waste, many students don’t know about them or aren’t aware of what the university is doing. I believe that ERAU can reduce food waste through a combination of student education and structural adjustments—small changes such as removing trays or donating surplus food—that benefit both the planet and the campus budget. Ultimately, by turning awareness into action, ERAU can model how student choices in dining halls contribute to global sustainability challenges.