By Hannah Gray
As dishes are stacked on the conveyer belt in The Commons, food clearly overflows from the plates onto the surrounding area. But as of late, there has been a noticeable decrease in the amount of food left on the dirty dishes. Serving sizes have gone down in The Commons, and their compost levels have increased, causing UP's waste awareness to rise.
Bon Appétit initiated a 12 week study to determine UP's carbon footprint. In fact, this is a program that is happening company wide, according to Bon Appétit's Manager Kirk Mustain. UP is currently in week six of this study, which began at the beginning of the semester.
"Our goal is to reduce post-consumer and post-production waste by 25 percent," Mustain said. "There are a couple of ways we can do this: awareness of portion sizes, awareness to students and watching production levels."
Bon Appétit is looking at ways to reduce waste at the consumer level - how much students waste - and the production level - where they make the food. The waste reduction is happening in both The Commons and The Cove.
The first week began by measuring waste on a daily basis, to give Bon Appétit a measurement to reference in future. The waste was written down on a sign, where a designated number of pounds corresponded with a certain day.
The Commons has 23 five-gallon buckets of waste each week, Bong said. The Commons tracks its waste via buckets and pounds.
"The week we tracked waste out front with the sign, the waste went down 500 pounds," said Kenny Bong, The Commons Dining Manager.
The Commons Executive Chef James Green attributed this large decrease in waste to a higher awareness directed at the students, which caused a bigger impact.
"I think everyone is somewhat aware that we are wasting a lot," sophomore Stephanie Fuchs said. "Seeing the actual poster enforced it more and helped us bring up the topic."
Mustain commented that the waste reduction is better received at the production level because they can work with waste directly. A couple of ways Bon Appétit began to lower waste was to cook things last minute, provide more appropriate proportion sizes and to wrap things up correctly.
Regardless of the amount of waste, The Commons produces 3000 pounds of compost and donates leftover food to local homeless shelters - for example, they donate to Transitions Projects.
"We are very proud of our compost program. To go from zero pounds of food to 3000 pounds per week is amazing. That's a lot of product out of the landfills right there," Green said.
Another contributing factor to The Commons' waste is catering. Their catering can range from serving pastries to sit down dinners for 500 people, Bong said. Depending on what type of catering, they have contributed to an extra amount of waste, on top of breakfast, lunch, and dinner for students.
Green said that awareness is a big factor in reducing waste in the kitchen. "We are making the most of the food we produce and trying not to overproduce to control food waste," he said.
Waste went down in the first week, then it came back up, and now it is steadily moving down from there. This is occurring more so in the kitchen, with the post-production levels, Mustain said.
Although Bon Appétit has been giving smaller portion sizes as a direct way to reduce waste, the smaller portions aren't always well-received.
"I think at the least the idea is good. I think it would be better to have both a small portion size and a large portion size to choose from," sophomore Megan Reed said. "But I'm fully behind the thought of not wasting as much food."
Mustain is hopeful of Bon Appétit's goal to reduce waste. "It can be hard to change a culture, but you can mandate the back with the product," Mustain said.
The trays in The Commons were taken away about the same time that the waste reduction was initiated. Pulling trays out of the cafeteria can reduce waste by 30 percent, according to Mustain. "A lot of college campuses are doing this now," Mustain said.
Even though adjustments are being made, the overall campaign to lower UP's carbon footprint through waste is well liked.
"I think it is a really good idea. It makes me more aware of how much is left on my plate," Fuchs said. "Also, the people I eat with are more conscious of what they eat as well."
Other students think that the program could work, only if there is active participation.
"It will work as long as the students eat what they take, which will make it easier for Bon Appétit to see how much food they need to make," junior Aaron Ryther said.
Overall, the campaign has been more effective and evident in The Commons rather than The Cove because The Cove is harder to measure due to the fact that a lot of the food is taken to go, Mustain said.
This campaign provides one more way for students to actively control their global impact.
"UP students are concerned about the global community. They are more aware of other countries, and want to help other countries by reducing our own waste," Reed said.
