Reducing Food Waste
According to U.S. EPA, approximately 35 million tons of food waste was generated in 2010, with 97 percent ending up in landfills or incinerators. Food waste is an emerging issue with environmental, social, and economic impacts, and UT Arlington recognizes the importance of minimizing food waste on our campus. We approach this issue in multiple ways, including collaboration with our dining services provider, involvement in the EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge, and development of our award-wining composting program.
Food Recovery Network
Food Recovery Network is a national nonprofit that unites students at colleges and universities to fight food waste and hunger by recovering perishable food that would otherwise go to waste from the campus’ dining halls and donating it to those in need. The goal is to change the norm from food waste to food recovery – resulting in the recovery of surplus food to feed everyone who is hungry in the U.S. In 2020, UT Arlington started a chapter of the Food Recovery Network in partnership with Arlington Life Shelter
U.S. EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge
UTA is one of 50 colleges and universities in the United States and among the first in Texas to become a partner in the U.S. EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge, a food waste reduction initiative within the EPA’s WasteWise program. Partners commit to at least a 5% increase from their baseline year in at least one of the three food diversion categories (prevention, donation, and composting) or to a combined 5 percent increase across all three food waste diversion categories. In 2014 and 2018, UTA was the recipient of EPA’s award for Leadership in reducing food waste.
Composting
When food decomposes in landfills, it generates methane, a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Composting food and other organic waste can reduce its climate impact while retaining vital nutrients for reuse in campus gardens and landscaping. The University’s composting program annually composts 32.4 tons of food waste from on-campus dining services and off-campus coffee shops and hospitals as well as yard waste collected from campus ground crews. The University uses the compost as mulch and soil amendment on campus grounds and in the new community garden. The program has received numerous awards from The Recycling Alliance of Texas, the Greater DFW Recycling Alliance, and the North Texas Corporate Recycling Alliance, and the EPA Food Recovery Challenge.
Maverick Dining Services
Chartwells, UTA’s dining services provider, purchases 100% certified seafood, cage-free shell eggs, grass-fed beef, rBGH free milk and chicken, turkey and pork produced without the routine use of antibiotics. Chartwells’ Balanced Sustainability approach addresses four basic tenets of sustainable and socially responsible business practices: Eat Green, Build Green, Run Green, and Return Green. These practices include such programs as trayless dining service and Project Clean Plate, which promotes food waste awareness. Waste Not tracks, measures and reduces kitchen waste.
Stop the Food Waste
More than 22 million pounds of uneaten food is thrown away on college campuses each year, according to Food Recovery Network, a student-driven nonprofit dedicated to reducing food waste and hunger at higher education institutions. A single college student generates an average 142 pounds of food waste per year, according to Recycling Works, a Massachusetts recycling assistance program. The unconscious habit of wasting food is greatly at odds with the amount of people who need it: nearly 15 percent of the population (47 million people) lives below the federal poverty line. Therefore, food waste on such a large scale is not only an economic issue and environmental issue, but it also ties in with social sustainability.
Every April Maverick Dining participates in Stop Food Waste Day. This initiative helps illustrate to our guests the impact of the food they throw away after eating. Stop Food Waste Day is an initiative with the goal of encouraging others to be more mindful about the food waste they create. Instead of guests placing their plates on the dish return line, the team along with volunteers take the plates to scrape the uneaten food into bins. This food waste is then measured and recorded.
To see the impact of the event, the amount of food waste is measured before and after the event in order to compare the amount of waste.
- Nov 2014: 126 lbs of food waste was weighed as wasted food
- Nov 2015: 65 lbs of food waste was weighed as wasted food
- April 2018: 362 lbs of food waste was collected and weighed over a period of 3 days with a student count of 1,861.
In addition to providing useful information about what sorts of things end up in the waste stream in dining halls, the events serve to inspire students to consume less. Students as they left the dining halls after the events said they would take less food in general in the future.
Farmshelf (Hydroponics)
Two Farmshelf hydroponic features in the Connection Café. With locality and sourcing top-of-mind, the goal is to harvest eight different herbs for in-house culinary production. Farmshelf accelerates plant growth 2-3x faster than typical agriculture while also using 90% less water. It also eliminates food waste and plastic packaging; as we are growing and harvesting just what we need and using the produce on campus.
Waste Not
Waste Not is a continuous initiative that takes place in both dining halls, Connection Café and Maverick Café.
Waste not takes place back of house and focuses on three categories:
- Production waste
- Over production
- Unused or out of date inventory
Each day any food that falls into one of the three categories is placed into a specific bin to be weighed and logged.
Following Waste Not allows the Maverick Dining team team to monitor how much food is going to waste and make adjustments that help decrease the amount.
Some examples that we work to reduce back of house waste are:
- Increasing menu forecasting accuracy
- Training our associates how to efficiently prep food to reduce scraps or find another use such as a homemade vegetable broth.
Food Insecurity
The dining website and app, Dine On Campus, recently launched a Food Insecurity feature that students are able to utilize. The Food Insecurity feature focuses on food that is unused and hasn’t been unwrapped from catering events. Maverick Dining launched this tool in the Spring 2020 semester.
- After a catering event, if there is eligible food leftover a member of the catering team can set up an alert to those who have signed up through the Dine On Campus app.
- Students can sign up for these alerts through the Dine On Campus app.
- A time and location is set, and anyone who is interested can come and pick-up food.
Dine on Campus App | Google Play
Food Pantry
The UTA/Tri-C Food Pantry hosts regular distributions to serve UTA students with food insecurities. The Food Pantry provides students with the opportunity to receive a mixture of non-perishable foods to supplement their monthly food costs. The Food Pantry is open to any UTA Student, Faculty or Staff member with a UTA I.D.
Food Waste Case Study: Research Conducted by Cesar Rodriguez, student of Dr. Melanie Sattler at the College of Engineering
A student led research project aimed to tackle the challenge of increasing the sustainability of the Connection Café at UTA by proposing a redesigned system for food entering and leaving the dining hall. Specifically, the research targets issues including the food items selected, where they are grown, how they are served, and how this food is handled and disposed of during the post-consumer phase. Additionally, a 17 question survey involving 329 students was conducted to explore the viability of implementing more meat alternatives/substitutes to increase sustainability.