College Reduces Waste, Wins Award

On Thursday, March 28, Middlebury received the Food Recovery Challenge Achievement Award, earning recognition from the Environmental Protection Agency for increasing organics diversion in 2011. By using disposed food products for higher and better purposes such as composting, the college has contributed to the recovery of more than 2,000 tons of food waste amongst seven New England colleges.

Middlebury has been part of a composting program since 1993, celebrating its 20th year this spring. Approximately 7,000 meals are prepared daily on campus and over 90 percent of food waste generated is diverted to produce 15,000 cubic yards of compost annually. The mixing and turning process is carried out on Middlebury’s own site, located on South Street. All compost produced is utilized on campus and is continuing to sustain the schools 66 percent diversion rate.

However, despite the success with which campus composting efforts have been met, food waste levels at Middlebury have not been cut. According to Missy Beckwith, manager of the Bread Loaf campus  and waste management, food waste levels have increased just as much as composting has grown.

“To say that we’ve reduced food waste I don’t think is accurate,” she said.

In discussing the EPA award, she brought attention to the most important step in decreasing food waste levels on campus, which begins in the dining hall, and more specifically, on the server line.

Students are returning plates with larger amounts of food that, sometimes, appear to be untouched, according to dining staff at dish returning stations. Perhaps, composting is giving some students the idea that discarding food is not a form of waste since most food waste becomes compost, but this would be inaccurate to believe, as Beckwith explained.

“If compost goes up, it means that we are potentially wasting more food and the resources that go into making that food,” she said.

Along with the issue of stolen plates from the dining hall, which has persisted for three years, excessive food waste has also become a consequence of the liberal meal plan Middlebury offers. Students are often serving themselves unreasonably large portions of food, generating greater post-consumer waste and in turn, sending an inaccurate indication to dining staff of the amount of food that should be prepared. Food dropped on the counter or the floor has also become another form of food waste, which has been brought to the attention of many by the display in Proctor Dining Hall, where a bucket with food scraps gathered up off the floor has been placed.

Noah Berman ’13 shared his opinion on the display and issue. “I think that [the display] is an effective way to demonstrate to people that the problem exists,” he said.

In the discussion of the EPA Award, which has been well earned and proudly received, facilitators commended Middlebury on its 20 years of composting and its continued efforts to recover food waste, but they also expressed strong encouragement of students to recognize their position of influence in the reduction of food waste.