Composting & Food Waste

NHDES Credits:  1

Imagine buying 5 bags of groceries. On your way out of the store, you dump 2 of them directly in the trash. This is the reality for Americans, who waste roughly 40% of food produced for consumption. School cafeterias are no exception, but it doesn't have to be that way! This recorded webinar will outline the wasted food crisis, model methods for measuring wasted cafeteria food, and provide tangible solutions.

Why do students throw away perfectly good food? One California waste generation study showed that students generate 37.3 pounds of organic waste per year, making it almost half of the total waste generated at a school (California Department of Resources 2014). There are countless more recent studies, but one thing is clear; the United States has a school food waste issue. Food waste leads to increased waste disposal costs and wasted food budget funds, not to mention the environmental costs of sending food to sit in a landfill.