HI folks,
We have quite a few updates as we came back from Spring Break in full force. Check out the new partnerships, bioware testing, data metrics and Earth Month activities in the photo essay below:
- We welcome the Geosciences and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology departments in Guyot Hall to our growing list of partnering venues thanks to the efforts of graduate students, Chris Crawford and Katja Luxem. Each of their department kitchens now has a 5-gal collection bin (shown above) similar to the ones in the McGraw Center (pictured below), the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering department, and the Scully Co-op.
2. We continued testing more compostable food service ware after a departmental request to evaluate a caterer for future zero waste events. Items included a serving tray, bamboo tongs & serving picks, and birch utensils. The serving tray is likely to be too thick to break down inside of the composting system after 5 days, and it is likely that the picks may elude the cutting blades and pass through the shredder still intact, but the proof will be in the compost! Stay tuned for the results!
3. As part of this year’s Earth Month schedule of activities and events, the SCRAP Lab will be hosting drop-in hours every Tuesday in April (9:30 to 10:30am), as well as a guided tour on Friday, April 26th (11am – Noon).
Weekly Data: 3/22 – 3/28
We’ve updated our data chart slightly to include the break-down of the sources of the uneaten food (Campus Center/Cafes vs Academic/Residential Buildings) as well as a metric totaling the greenhouse gas emission savings from diverting the uneaten food from the landfill using the EPA’s Waste Reduction Model (WARM).
| Total Food | Campus Center/Cafes |
Academic/Residential Buildings
|
Wood shavings (BA/CS)
|
% BA/CS |
Compost Off-loaded | GHG Emissions Saved (MTCO2eq) | |
| Week Totals (lbs.) | 3,236 | 3,216 | 20 | 1,046 | 32% | 6,000* | |
| CUMULATIVE (lbs) | 62,048 | 61,749 | 299 | 19,008 | 31% | 53,500 | 18 |
*Compost off-loaded before Spring Break