WVU Dining Services Waste Audit Report Spring Semester, 2017 In 2017, WVU Dining Services spent one week collecting data on the waste generated in its five all-you- care-to-eat Residence Dining Centers. A similar week of data collection took place in 2012. Since the 2012 data collection, WVU Dining has made a handful of changes to its campus offerings, including the implementation of trayless dining in Café Evansdale, the use of reusable to-go boxes at the Terrace Room at Stalnaker, and a slow transition from batch-style cooking to made-to-order cooking. Comparing the data, these changes to WVU Dining’s operation have yielded a 15% decrease in the amount of waste produced per meal. Café Evansdale has achieved an estimated 36% decrease in waste produced per meal, and the Terrace Room has produced 30% less waste per meal. The data suggests that trayless dining is an effective way to reduce food waste, that there is room for improvement in our Summit Café location, and the largest source of waste in WVU Dining is from the dining rooms of our locations. Introduction In 2012, WVU Dining initiated the process of collecting data on how much waste was generated in its five all-you-care-to-eat campus dining locations. The results of that study garnered a handful of positive insights, including data demonstrating the effectiveness of trayless dining and benchmarking the amount of landfill waste that could be diverted to compost. Since 2012, a number of changes have been implemented to WVU Dining’s programs. Our largest dining center, Café Evansdale, removed trays from serving lines in 2014. The Terrace Room, one of our two smallest units, began an experiment with reusable to-go containers in 2013. Major equipment upgrades to Café Evansdale took place in the summer of 2015, which helped the unit transition away from batch- style cooking to a made-to-order model of service. Batch cooking is a style of service where batches of food are prepared in advance. The amount of food prepared is based on records of how popular the dish was when previously served. Made-to-Order cooking prepares ingredients ahead of service, but the final cooking and serving process is delayed until the customer’s order. The batch system of cooking ensures that food is always available with no wait time, but when estimates are off, it yields an increase in food waste. The Made-to-Order system means that more time is spent waiting for an order to be filled, but there’s an increase in the efficient use of the ingredients and a reduction in food waste. This change in cooking style had a significant impact our food recovery efforts. The amount of leftovers produced in the kitchen was reduced so dramatically, programs that depended on Café Evansdale for food recovery were forced to conclude. This waste audit would, hopefully, give WVU Dining and the Café Evansdale staff data to help explain the impact of this new cooking style. Along with changes to WVU Dining’s programs, one of the major cultural changes over the past five years has been a significant increase in national awareness of and advocacy for food waste management. Dining Staff noticed an increase in students requesting interviews on the subject for classroom assignments. Through our connections at other campus dining programs, facilitated by the National Association of Collegiate and University Food Services (NACUFS), we observed other campus dining programs exploring the issue with their schools. In 2013, students formed a chapter of the Food Recovery Network (FRN), a national advocacy program that works to help divert usable food waste to hunger based non-profits. In 2015, the EPA announced its first ever food waste reduction goal, looking to halve the amount of food waste in landfills by 2030. While WVU Dining has always been a partner in
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WVU Dining Services Waste Audit Report Spring Semester, 2017
In 2017, WVU Dining Services spent one week collecting data on the waste generated in its five all-you-
care-to-eat Residence Dining Centers. A similar week of data collection took place in 2012. Since the
2012 data collection, WVU Dining has made a handful of changes to its campus offerings, including the
implementation of trayless dining in Café Evansdale, the use of reusable to-go boxes at the Terrace
Room at Stalnaker, and a slow transition from batch-style cooking to made-to-order cooking. Comparing
the data, these changes to WVU Dining’s operation have yielded a 15% decrease in the amount of waste
produced per meal. Café Evansdale has achieved an estimated 36% decrease in waste produced per
meal, and the Terrace Room has produced 30% less waste per meal. The data suggests that trayless
dining is an effective way to reduce food waste, that there is room for improvement in our Summit Café
location, and the largest source of waste in WVU Dining is from the dining rooms of our locations.
Introduction
In 2012, WVU Dining initiated the process of collecting data on how much waste was generated in its
five all-you-care-to-eat campus dining locations. The results of that study garnered a handful of positive
insights, including data demonstrating the effectiveness of trayless dining and benchmarking the
amount of landfill waste that could be diverted to compost.
Since 2012, a number of changes have been implemented to WVU Dining’s programs. Our largest dining
center, Café Evansdale, removed trays from serving lines in 2014. The Terrace Room, one of our two
smallest units, began an experiment with reusable to-go containers in 2013. Major equipment upgrades
to Café Evansdale took place in the summer of 2015, which helped the unit transition away from batch-
style cooking to a made-to-order model of service. Batch cooking is a style of service where batches of
food are prepared in advance. The amount of food prepared is based on records of how popular the dish
was when previously served. Made-to-Order cooking prepares ingredients ahead of service, but the final
cooking and serving process is delayed until the customer’s order. The batch system of cooking ensures
that food is always available with no wait time, but when estimates are off, it yields an increase in food
waste. The Made-to-Order system means that more time is spent waiting for an order to be filled, but
there’s an increase in the efficient use of the ingredients and a reduction in food waste.
This change in cooking style had a significant impact our food recovery efforts. The amount of leftovers
produced in the kitchen was reduced so dramatically, programs that depended on Café Evansdale for
food recovery were forced to conclude. This waste audit would, hopefully, give WVU Dining and the
Café Evansdale staff data to help explain the impact of this new cooking style.
Along with changes to WVU Dining’s programs, one of the major cultural changes over the past five
years has been a significant increase in national awareness of and advocacy for food waste
management. Dining Staff noticed an increase in students requesting interviews on the subject for
classroom assignments. Through our connections at other campus dining programs, facilitated by the
National Association of Collegiate and University Food Services (NACUFS), we observed other campus
dining programs exploring the issue with their schools. In 2013, students formed a chapter of the Food
Recovery Network (FRN), a national advocacy program that works to help divert usable food waste to
hunger based non-profits. In 2015, the EPA announced its first ever food waste reduction goal, looking
to halve the amount of food waste in landfills by 2030. While WVU Dining has always been a partner in
campus sustainability efforts, national sustainability trends have shifted to focus the food supply,
suggesting that WVU Dining’s role in sustainability needed to shift from partner to leader.
A major piece of this national push toward food waste reduction is the connection between food waste
and climate change. In 2014, the United States EPA reported that 14.9% of all municipal solid waste was
food, second only to paper.1 WVU Dining’s 2012 waste audit data showed that 65% of its waste was
compostable food material that was being diverted to a landfill. When food waste is disposed of in a
landfill, there are two ways for that waste to decompose: with or without access to oxygen. Aerobic
decomposition, meaning “decomposition with oxygen,” is a process that returns food waste to soil as
it’s consumed by microorganisms. One of the results of this process is carbon dioxide.2 Anaerobic
decomposition, meaning “decomposition without oxygen,” is another natural way for food to
decompose, but the lack of oxygen in the process produces methane instead of carbon dioxide. Data
from the EPA suggests that, when it comes to increases in global temperature, the warming potential of
Methane is nearly 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.3 As food waste is disposed of in a landfill,
left underneath tons of other waste, there is no access to oxygen, and so, as it decomposes, it produces
Methane gas.
After reviewing all of these combined factors, WVU Dining decided to initiate a second waste audit for
spring 2017 for the purpose of collecting new data and assessing program changes.
Method
In our 2012 waste audit, all waste was measured in pounds, and as every bag of waste was collected to
be disposed of, it was first weighed and documented. Each bag of waste was recorded by time of day,
location, and contents.
The location of the waste was an important variable to test. Kitchen waste, or preconsumer waste, is
waste that is generated before WVU Dining’s guests were served. Dining room waste, or postconsumer
waste, is the “leftover” waste, scraps of food that were left uneaten by guests. Differentiating between
these types of waste would help WVU Dining discover any inefficiencies in our kitchen and production
areas.
The contents of the waste were recorded as: Steel Cans, #1-#7 plastics, glass, aluminum, cardboard,
food waste, and landfill waste. In 2012, our data only recorded #1 and #2 plastics. At that time those
were the only two plastics that WVU could recycle. By 2017, the university had transitioned recycling
programs, and was now able to recycle plastics #1-#7.
Volunteers were recruited to assists WVU Dining staff with the extra workload. These volunteers were
delegated two major responsibilities: assist our custodians in collecting and measuring waste, and help
guests sort dining room (postconsumer) waste into compostable waste bins and landfill waste bins.
For this audit, compostable waste was defined as “any biodegradable food product,” and included all
food waste, bones, gristle, and napkins. Landfill waste primarily included straws, containers from juice
1 https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-11/documents/2014_smmfactsheet_508.pdf 2 Many residential compost bins are now set up to rotate or tumble to facilitate this type of composting. 3 https://www3.epa.gov/region9/waste/features/foodtoenergy/food-waste.html. This methane is so potent, that it is possible to build power plants that run off of the methane produced from anaerobic food waste disposal.