wvu dining services waste audit report spring semester, 2017€¦ · to café evansdale took place...

WVU Dining Services Waste Audit Report Spring Semester, 2017

In 2017, WVU Dining Services spent one week collecting data on the waste generated in its five all-you-

care-to-eat Residence Dining Centers. A similar week of data collection took place in 2012. Since the

2012 data collection, WVU Dining has made a handful of changes to its campus offerings, including the

implementation of trayless dining in Café Evansdale, the use of reusable to-go boxes at the Terrace

Room at Stalnaker, and a slow transition from batch-style cooking to made-to-order cooking. Comparing

the data, these changes to WVU Dining’s operation have yielded a 15% decrease in the amount of waste

produced per meal. Café Evansdale has achieved an estimated 36% decrease in waste produced per

meal, and the Terrace Room has produced 30% less waste per meal. The data suggests that trayless

dining is an effective way to reduce food waste, that there is room for improvement in our Summit Café

location, and the largest source of waste in WVU Dining is from the dining rooms of our locations.

Introduction

In 2012, WVU Dining initiated the process of collecting data on how much waste was generated in its

five all-you-care-to-eat campus dining locations. The results of that study garnered a handful of positive

insights, including data demonstrating the effectiveness of trayless dining and benchmarking the

amount of landfill waste that could be diverted to compost.

Since 2012, a number of changes have been implemented to WVU Dining’s programs. Our largest dining

center, Café Evansdale, removed trays from serving lines in 2014. The Terrace Room, one of our two

smallest units, began an experiment with reusable to-go containers in 2013. Major equipment upgrades

to Café Evansdale took place in the summer of 2015, which helped the unit transition away from batch-

style cooking to a made-to-order model of service. Batch cooking is a style of service where batches of

food are prepared in advance. The amount of food prepared is based on records of how popular the dish

was when previously served. Made-to-Order cooking prepares ingredients ahead of service, but the final

cooking and serving process is delayed until the customer’s order. The batch system of cooking ensures

that food is always available with no wait time, but when estimates are off, it yields an increase in food

waste. The Made-to-Order system means that more time is spent waiting for an order to be filled, but

there’s an increase in the efficient use of the ingredients and a reduction in food waste.

This change in cooking style had a significant impact our food recovery efforts. The amount of leftovers

produced in the kitchen was reduced so dramatically, programs that depended on Café Evansdale for

food recovery were forced to conclude. This waste audit would, hopefully, give WVU Dining and the

Café Evansdale staff data to help explain the impact of this new cooking style.

Along with changes to WVU Dining’s programs, one of the major cultural changes over the past five

years has been a significant increase in national awareness of and advocacy for food waste

management. Dining Staff noticed an increase in students requesting interviews on the subject for

classroom assignments. Through our connections at other campus dining programs, facilitated by the

National Association of Collegiate and University Food Services (NACUFS), we observed other campus

dining programs exploring the issue with their schools. In 2013, students formed a chapter of the Food

Recovery Network (FRN), a national advocacy program that works to help divert usable food waste to

hunger based non-profits. In 2015, the EPA announced its first ever food waste reduction goal, looking

to halve the amount of food waste in landfills by 2030. While WVU Dining has always been a partner in

campus sustainability efforts, national sustainability trends have shifted to focus the food supply,

suggesting that WVU Dining’s role in sustainability needed to shift from partner to leader.

A major piece of this national push toward food waste reduction is the connection between food waste

and climate change. In 2014, the United States EPA reported that 14.9% of all municipal solid waste was

food, second only to paper.1 WVU Dining’s 2012 waste audit data showed that 65% of its waste was

compostable food material that was being diverted to a landfill. When food waste is disposed of in a

landfill, there are two ways for that waste to decompose: with or without access to oxygen. Aerobic

decomposition, meaning “decomposition with oxygen,” is a process that returns food waste to soil as

it’s consumed by microorganisms. One of the results of this process is carbon dioxide.2 Anaerobic

decomposition, meaning “decomposition without oxygen,” is another natural way for food to

decompose, but the lack of oxygen in the process produces methane instead of carbon dioxide. Data

from the EPA suggests that, when it comes to increases in global temperature, the warming potential of

Methane is nearly 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.3 As food waste is disposed of in a landfill,

left underneath tons of other waste, there is no access to oxygen, and so, as it decomposes, it produces

Methane gas.

After reviewing all of these combined factors, WVU Dining decided to initiate a second waste audit for

spring 2017 for the purpose of collecting new data and assessing program changes.

Method

In our 2012 waste audit, all waste was measured in pounds, and as every bag of waste was collected to

be disposed of, it was first weighed and documented. Each bag of waste was recorded by time of day,

location, and contents.

The location of the waste was an important variable to test. Kitchen waste, or preconsumer waste, is

waste that is generated before WVU Dining’s guests were served. Dining room waste, or postconsumer

waste, is the “leftover” waste, scraps of food that were left uneaten by guests. Differentiating between

these types of waste would help WVU Dining discover any inefficiencies in our kitchen and production

areas.

The contents of the waste were recorded as: Steel Cans, #1-#7 plastics, glass, aluminum, cardboard,

food waste, and landfill waste. In 2012, our data only recorded #1 and #2 plastics. At that time those

were the only two plastics that WVU could recycle. By 2017, the university had transitioned recycling

programs, and was now able to recycle plastics #1-#7.

Volunteers were recruited to assists WVU Dining staff with the extra workload. These volunteers were

delegated two major responsibilities: assist our custodians in collecting and measuring waste, and help

guests sort dining room (postconsumer) waste into compostable waste bins and landfill waste bins.

For this audit, compostable waste was defined as “any biodegradable food product,” and included all

food waste, bones, gristle, and napkins. Landfill waste primarily included straws, containers from juice

1 https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-11/documents/2014_smmfactsheet_508.pdf 2 Many residential compost bins are now set up to rotate or tumble to facilitate this type of composting. 3 https://www3.epa.gov/region9/waste/features/foodtoenergy/food-waste.html. This methane is so potent, that it is possible to build power plants that run off of the methane produced from anaerobic food waste disposal.

https://www3.epa.gov/region9/waste/features/foodtoenergy/food-waste.html

machines, and unrecyclable individual cereal containers. Volunteers were tasked with keeping the two

cans separate.

These definitions and methods are consistent with our 2012 waste audit procedures, and if executed

correctly, would provide comparable data for assessment.

Hypothesis and Expectations

Generally, WVU Dining was expecting to see the following findings:

A significant reduction in dining room waste generated at Café Evansdale

A significant reduction in kitchen waste generated at Café Evansdale

Equal measures of waste generated at Boreman Bistro, Summit Café and Arnold’s Diner (three

locations which saw little change in equipment/program since 2012)

A unit wide increase in the amount of recycled materials

A decrease in overall waste generated per meal

Execution

The audit was scheduled for the first full week of February, 2017, starting Monday the 5th and ending on

Friday the 10th. Staff, especially custodians, were trained in the weeks following up to the Waste Audit

Week. Volunteers were assigned to three or four hour shifts throughout the hours of operation. Most

volunteers were part of HFN 385: Food Systems Management course, and signed up for class credit

through WVU’s iServe volunteer system. Dining staff also invited students from multiple campus clubs to

join in the audit, including the Food Recovery Network, the Sierra Student Coalition, and WVU’s Student

Government Association.

A handful of minor issues impacted the work throughout week. Monday, February 5th was the day after

the Super Bowl, and a fourth quarter comeback made for a late night for most students. Because of the

late night, many students did not attend their opening Monday shift, which started as early 7:00am.

There was also a snowstorm on Thursday, February 9th, which also impacted volunteer attendance.

When volunteers did not make their shift, WVU Dining staff stepped in to ensure that the trash was

separated appropriately.

After the week of data gathering, WVU noticed two unexpected results:

Summit Café’s data showed waste numbers that were completely out of line with customer counts,

ingredient purchases, and staff expectations. A quick investigation into the matter disclosed issues with

accurate readings from the unit’s scale.

Boreman Bistro’s data also showed an unexpected increase in waste numbers, and requested the

opportunity to run the audit again with a different scale.

After discussion with the managers at Boreman Bistro and Summit Café, the decision was made to run

the audit again for these two units using different scales. This second round of data proved to be more

in line with expectations.

Results

A summary of our findings and raw data is available at the conclusion of this report. Some highlights of

the data are as follows:

Since 2012, WVU Dining has achieved a 15% reduction in the amount of waste generated per

meal across its five residence dining centers.

Café Evansdale, our largest unit and the one with the most changes since 2012, saw a dramatic

38% reduction of waste generated per meal. It also boasts a 70% reduction in the amount of

waste generated per meal from the kitchen (preconsumer).

The Terrace Room at Stalnaker saw a 30% reduction in waste per meal generated.

Boreman Bistro and Arnold’s Diner saw some minimal changes in the amount of waste

generated per meal.

Summit Café saw a significant increase in the amount of waste generated per meal.

Most of the data we found to be on point with our expectations, and WVU Dining is pleased with the

results. Trayless dining is a major reducer of waste. A focus on our biggest producer of waste from 2012,

Café Evansdale, has yielded positive results.

The data showing a 30% waste reduction at the Terrace Room at Stalnaker was both striking and

unexpected. An interview with the Terrace Room’s manager noted several changes from the 2012 waste

audit that may have been responsible for this shift in data. First, the unit allows to-go meals to students

who have purchased a reusable to-go container, which is a unique option for this unit not available at

other locations. Second, the Terrace Room has put renewed focus on their chef’s demo station, a made-

to-order style cooking station that is well received by students. Third, the unit has been consistently

using production sheets to measure accurate food preparation numbers, developing a data set that

helps pinpoint beloved dishes (and less-than-enjoyed dishes), which the unit did not have in 2012. The

unit also cut back one of its underperforming serving lines, which often batch served comfort foods like

French fries and chicken tenders. “Students weren’t happy about the lack of Chicken Tenders at first, but

we’ve rotated those items into our main line so they aren’t totally missed” explained Cindy Brewer, the

manager at Terrace Room. Finally, the manager at Terrace Room has spent lots of time redeveloping the

unit’s menu with student input. “I was told we were making ‘too much old people food’” shares Brewer.

“Nobody eats meatloaf anymore.”

The data showing a significant increase in waste-generated-per-meal with Summit Café deserves some

further investigation. The data indicates that waste measurements from 2012 to 2017 have dropped

slightly, but the number of customers has dropped significantly. As a result, numbers show that the

amount of waste-per-student has jumped a surprising 53%, but the overall amount of waste dropped by

7%.

A review of purchasing data, and a review of kitchen and landfill waste data, show that these numbers

do grow, but not enough to justify that 53% increase. There is, however, a 36% increase in dining room

waste per student, meaning that main bulk of Summit Café’s food waste increases comes from post-

consumer waste. It’s WVU Dining’s estimate that, because of lower customer counts and higher food

waste from the dining room, the food waste issue at Summit Café could be improved greatly by menu

design and redevelopment.

WVU Dining’s data on recycled waste showed that the amount of recycled waste did not change

significantly from 2012 to 2017, despite the expansion of plastic recycling on campus. A number of

variables could account for this lack of change. Compared to cardboard, plastic, and steel, plastics are

not as heavy, and in a weight-based system of measurement, an increase in the volume of plastic

recycled material would not make much impact. It may also be true that plastics #3-#7 are used less

often in food service settings.

Next Steps

Now that the data has been collected and analyzed, here is a list of next steps that WVU Dining is

looking to explore:

Campus Celebration: The data gives us the occasion to celebrate meaningful work accomplished with

campus dining over the past five years, with special thanks to our partner campus organizations, classes,

and student groups.

Campus Education: The data also suggests that the best way to reduce our food waste footprint is to

reduce our dining room compost waste. Our kitchen staff and our student guests are both important

partners in reducing food waste, and making sure everyone is informed of the campus wide contribution

to this national issue. Reducing the amount of compostable waste in the Dining Room area is a key part

of this process, and as this data is shared with the campus, we plan to encourage guests to “Taste, Don’t

Waste” as they eat in the Dining Halls. The easiest way to reduce our waste contributions is to serve

ourselves less and to clean our plates.

Management Focus: In our 2012 study, WVU Dining’s management team made Café Evansdale the focus

of their work to improve the campus’s food waste contribution. It has, for the most part, worked, with

Café Evansdale now sporting one of the most efficient kitchens despite feeding the most guests. In 2017,

the data shows that our focus should now turn toward Summit Cafe. With Summit Café welcoming new

students from Seneca Hall in the Fall of 2017, making sure Summit is able to serve students a menu they

enjoy is paramount to campus dining success in the future.

Batch vs. MTO: Data from Café Evansdale and the Terrace Room at Stalnaker suggest that there is a

significant increase in efficiency when units switch emphasis from the batch style of cooking to the MTO

style of cooking. As WVU Dining continues to improve its services, offerings, facilities, and menus, this

data will play a major component in future decisions.

Partner Reports

WVU Dining asked its waste audit partners to contribute their own comments to the report. The

following reports come from the WVU Office of Sustainability, WVU Sierra Student Coalition, and WVU

Food Recovery Network, and a senior student working on her undergraduate thesis with the Davis

College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design.

WVU Office of Sustainability

WVU’s Office of Sustainability utilizes data from the dining hall waste audit to:

Have a waste baseline for how much is being thrown away in dining halls (including municipal

solid waste (MSW), recycling, and compostable material). Having this number helps us work

with different groups to reduce waste as a first priority by changing purchasing habits,

packaging, quantities, etc. Ensuring what we’re throwing away is recyclable is a second priority.

Landfilling waste is ideally the last resort.

Determine the weight of recyclables coming from the dining hall setting. This helps us

understand if recyclables are generated from preconsumer or postconsumer activities, WVU

Dining purchased items, are brought in from outside the hall, and to make a landfill to recycling

ratio.

Determine how much compostable weight comes from dining halls. Many composting processes

require a balance of inputs—oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and moisture. Knowing how much food

waste we have from dining halls fills in a lot of the nitrogen and moisture blanks and gives us a

basis to determine how much carbon-based inputs we would need to make composting work on

campus. Having this data also helps us determine things like removal costs and collection

processes

Document success. WVU is continually building upon its commitment to sustainability

WVU Sierra Student Coalition

The WVU Sierra Student Coalition (SSC) was impressed by the results from changes made in several

WVU dining halls which were highlighted in the latest food audit. In order to bring food from farms to

kitchens, resources such as water, fertilizers, pesticides, coal/natural gas for processing, metals and

plastics to make containers, oil to transport, and fossil fuels to cook, are all used. Food excess that ends

up in landfills is also a significant factor in the production of worldwide methane gas production (a major

greenhouse gas). By reducing the amount of food thrown away, and therefor bought, these eco-

damaging events may be reduced. We were happy to see reductions not only from the kitchens, but also

in the student body.

We applaud the general improvements, but SSC members also pointed out 3 major steps that should

still be taken towards sustainable living. First, a quick fix of adding the option to have a reusable

container at each of the dining halls can help by reducing reliance on Styrofoam containers that are at

other take-out locations, as well as providing the option to save a portion of a meal for later. Secondly, a

large emphasis should be placed on serving humanely sourced animal products (eggs, meats, etc). Lastly,

we think that “compostable waste” from the dining halls should actually be used for compost, even if it

is restricted to the kitchen and batch-food extras, which can be properly sorted.

The results from this food waste were great news and are a sign that WVU is moving toward becoming

more sustainable. We hope that more students and residents become aware of and active in reducing

their global footprint. Go mountaineers!

WVU Human Foods and Nutrition

The Human Nutrition Foods program is willing to assist in Next Steps #2 Campus education to do a

campus-wide program to reduce food waste. We can incorporate this education program into our

existing service learning efforts with Community Nutrition & Foodservice systems management. Thank

you for the opportunity to contribute.

WVU Food Recovery Network

The findings from this new dining hall audit can help guide the Food Recovery Network to our next

project. For example, within the study, we found an increase in post-consumer waste at Summit. This

data challenges us to increase our awareness efforts among students on campus, specifically those who

eat in dining halls. The FRN is proud to see that WVU Dining is working to become more sustainable. As

a university, we are improving greatly, but we can always do more to educate students and faculty on

their own production of waste. We would like to see WVU start to incorporate some type of composting

initiative in their dining halls over the next five years. Some form of organic waste will always come out

of our kitchens, and as an org, we feel there is a lot of opportunity to do this in our rural state.

This is awesome stuff and we are so proud to be at this university with dining who is doing such great

work!

Emily Janzow, Senior, Davis College

I am currently working on my senior project which is focused on waste streams, food waste reduction

and composting at WVU. The information from the food waste audit has really helped my research. One

of the sections of my paper is to focus on the total amount of food waste generated in WVU dining halls.

I hope to extrapolate the data from the food waste audit to see how much waste is produced over the

course of a year (Fall and Spring Semesters). It is beneficial for the University and its students to be

aware of the waste that is generated in the dining halls. While some of the food can be used to help

community members in need, not all leftover food can be consumed by people or animals. Composting

is a great option for food items that are no longer usable. In another section of my project I focus on the

potential for a composting program on campus. In this section I take into account location, waste inputs,

costs and other variables to get an idea of what it would take to make composting a reality at WVU. The

University has taken many strides toward becoming a more sustainable campus and I think

implementing a composting program would be a great addition to the university.

Unit Wide Waste Audit Data

Total Waste Audit Comparison 2012 2017

Total # Waste 19751.49 12306.26

Total Meals (minus takeout) 22782.00 16760.00

#/Meal 0.87 0.73

oz/Meal 13.87 11.75

Total # Landfill Waste 3380.23 2404.20


#/Meal 0.15 0.14

oz/Meal 2.37 2.30

Total # Recycled Waste 3494.05 2580.11


#/Meal 0.15 0.15

oz/Meal 2.45 2.46

Total # Compostable Waste 12877.21 7321.95


#/Meal 0.57 0.44

oz/Meal 9.04 6.99

Total # Kitchen Compost Waste 5655.00 2648.30

Total Meals (Including Takeout) 26401.00 16760.00

#/Meal 0.21 0.16

oz/Meal 3.43 2.53

Total # Dining Room Compost Waste 7211.00 4673.65


#/Meal 0.32 0.28

oz/Meal 5.06 4.46

Arnold’s Diner- Waste Audit Data

Arnold Comparisons 2012 2017

Total # Waste 2648.30 1120.40


#/Meal 0.84 0.93

oz/Meal 13.46 14.89



#/Meal 0.14 0.11

oz/Meal 2.21 1.69



#/Meal 0.16 0.31

oz/Meal 2.52 4.91



#/Meal 0.55 0.52

oz/Meal 8.73 8.29



#/Meal 0.17 0.13

oz/Meal 2.73 2.13



#/Meal 0.31 0.26

oz/Meal 5.02 4.10

Boreman Bistro- Waste Audit Data

Boreman Comparisons 2012 2017

Total # Waste 2324.48 1515.51


#/Meal 0.78 0.69

oz/Meal 12.49 10.96



#/Meal 0.19 0.20

oz/Meal 3.12 3.19



#/Meal 0.19 0.09

oz/Meal 2.96 1.52



#/Meal 0.40 0.39

oz/Meal 6.42 6.26



#/Meal 0.09 0.06

oz/Meal 1.39 0.93



#/Meal 0.27 0.31

oz/Meal 4.38 5.00

Café Evansdale- Waste Audit Data

Café Evansdale Comparisons 2012 2017

Total # Waste 9236.00 5181.00


#/Meal 1.08 0.67

oz/Meal 17.28 10.78



#/Meal 0.18 0.14

oz/Meal 2.91 2.23



#/Meal 0.17 0.19

oz/Meal 2.73 3.03



#/Meal 0.73 0.35

oz/Meal 11.64 5.53



#/Meal 0.34 0.10

oz/Meal 5.38 1.62



#/Meal 0.39 0.24

oz/Meal 6.26 3.90

Summit Café- Waste Audit Data

Summit Comparisons 2012 2017

Total # Waste 3267.30 3042.70


#/Meal 0.58 0.88

oz/Meal 9.21 14.05



#/Meal 0.07 0.15

oz/Meal 1.09 2.46



#/Meal 0.10 0.10

oz/Meal 1.64 1.64



#/Meal 0.40 0.62

oz/Meal 6.47 9.96



#/Meal 0.16 0.25

oz/Meal 2.60 3.92



#/Meal 0.24 0.38

oz/Meal 3.87 6.04

Terrace Room at Stalnaker- Waste Audit Update

Stalnaker Comparisons 2012 2017

Total # Waste 2275.41 1446.65


#/Meal 0.94 0.66

oz/Meal 14.99 10.56



#/Meal 0.17 0.11

oz/Meal 2.77 1.71



#/Meal 0.17 0.09

oz/Meal 2.66 1.39



#/Meal 0.60 0.47

oz/Meal 9.56 7.46



#/Meal 0.22 0.22

oz/Meal 3.45 3.55



#/Meal 0.29 0.22

oz/Meal 4.56 3.58

wvu dining services waste audit report spring semester, 2017€¦ · to café evansdale took place...

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