Making Campus (Dining Services) more Sustainable
Donnie Peterson
4/11/11
This campus today could be a lot more sustainable in my opinion. Right now a lot of waste comes from the dining on campus. There are many ways that we can reduce the amount of waste we produce on this campus. We can eat all of the food you get at Debot or use reusable items instead of getting stuff to go. I work at University Dining Services (UDS) and I see people get food to go and then walk 10 yards to a booth seat, sit, and eat their food. I just think what is the point of getting your food to go if you are going to eat it here?
I have come up with some awesome ideas to eliminate extra waste generated at UDS. First, discourage the use of to go items by charging a fee for getting items to go. This would help reduce waste and reduce the cost to UDS, which with the cost lowered UDS can either give more food with a student’s meal plan or get better quality of food. The cost of the to go items would discourage people to get to go and encourage them to stay and eat. I do understand that people have to go and eat on the run, so I propose a way of reducing disposable to go containers. We could start a system where you play an upfront cost for a reusable container that can be used for to go orders of food. Bring in the dirty container and exchange it for a clean one for the next time you need a to go order in the future.
Another thing that would be to get the C-Store (lower debot) to switch to reusable plates and cups, instead of having all disposable plates and cups. UDS would have to hire a few extra people to pick up dishes and to wash dishes. The C-Store could work a lot like the DUC Food Court works right now. Food that is made at the C-Store can just be placed on plates, instead of wrapping everything in paper. Once again, if a student does need an order of food to go they simply need to get a reusable container and those students would be set.
At both C-Store and the DUC Food Court, they can switch from serving milk in cartons to serving milk from bulk bags into reusable cups. This would eliminate all of the waste of milk cartons and also eliminate the waste to shipping all of the milk cartons compared to bagged milk in bulk. This would also save money to UDS, which one again could keep the food prices lower and/or keep the meal plans low.
Finally to conclude, these are just some ideas that UDS/Campus could do to help reduce waste. DUC Food Court and C-Store could set up garbage for putting just food scraps, so then the food scraps could be composted. Another thing, the DUC Food Court could also server the burgers and sub sandwiches on plates. They don’t have to wrap everything up in paper, it is just a waste of resources and cost extra money for no reason.
3 comments:
I totally agree with you when it comes to there being to much unneeded waste that comes from the UDS and debot dining centers. I think that your ideas for reducing extra waste generated by lower debot along with the extra charge for to go food at upper debot. I think that these are very good alternatives and that they should be put into use in the near future.
I agree with you, because some food might wasted due to people could not take their remanent food out of the Debot. I think people can bring their own container when they come to Debot or C-store. If they did not eat their food up, just put into their own container and finish them later. I think it will reduce the waste.
Personally, I believe that this campus does a lot already to reduce waste. That's not to say that there's nothing to fix, but our Dining services are better than most. The set-up we have for recycling seperates our waste into more categories than most universities and if I'm not mistaken, at least one of our halls does have a compost or a composting program. The point is, the option is there for those who are truly conscientious about their waste impacts. I'm sorry, but the paper and foil around the subs and sandwiches do serve a purpose; they keep the food warm and managable. It is less environmentally friendly than plates, but it does keep more food presentable for a longer period of time, making less wasted food.
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