Filed under: Community Service/Volunteer, Eating, Food, Spring 2009, Waist Watchers
On Wednesday, May 27, the Action Research Team at UCLA held group presentations about eco-friendly experiments and suggestions for improving human activities and the environment. Of the 8 research programs presented, I wanted to focus on one, Waste Watchers, because I found it most interesting and insightful to my own daily practices.
Through sampling of the De Neve Dining Hall at UCLA, Waste Watchers found that the average student in the dinning hall (for dinner hour) wastes about 0.18 pounds of food, the equivalent of three slices of bread. Because 20,000 people a day are served in the dining hall, that equals to about 3,600 pounds of food per every dinner session! This project started, I believe, 4 years back, and has continued this year into the Action Research Teams to help create ways for students to be more conscious of their wasteful tendencies in the dining halls, for both the benefit of the dining hall budget and the environment.
While weighing in the dining hall scraps, the members of this group found that most of the waste consisted of side dishes, such as peas and carrots. To implement this data into service, De Neve dining hall has plans to offer dishes to students without side dishes. While customizing your food order is already in place, may students don’t realize it or are to lazy to wait for their own personal plate.
Currently, the team is also working with ORL to get pictures of wasted food up on the TV screens outside the dining halls, to remind students not to waste. The team conducted a All-Hill challenge to curb waste one night in the dining halls to raise awareness as well, which resulted in a substantial decrease in food waste for the night.
Food waste is an important issues to our school, both economically and environmentally. Most students don’t realize that the dining hall is a non-profit organization. By wasting this large amount of food, and money, the dining hall is less able to incorporate organic or locally grown food into the dining hall diet. Incorporation of these foods not only supports local economy, but also lowers pollution due to shipping and pesticide use. Environmentally, food waste plays a major role in the bulk mass that is destined for landfills. Currently, the closest landfill to UCLA is about to close within the next few years, so transport costs to move waste to the landfill will drastically increase. My wasting less (or by composting, as other groups mentioned) students can play an active role in reducing costs and the environmental impact of wasted material.
Overall, I found Waste Watchers presentation an eye opener. I have noticed that the dining halls do tend to have a lot of food waste (because it is like all you can eat buffet every day) but I didn’t realize just how much waste there was, and what the impact of this waste would be.
-Ellen Dempsey 703452670
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