Solid Food Waste Disposal on College Campuses in the United States, with particular reference to Saint Mary’s College of California
Devin Jackson
April 26, 2005
Forum II Research Project
Professor Gloria Eive
With the growth and expansion of cities, new problems have arisen in disposing of garbage. “Garbage has (become) waste products to be discarded, rather than soil builders to be reused” (Gardner, 5). In 1993 the total “US (population) threw away 207 million tons of garbage” (Less garbage on campus, 3). This statistic referred to the “4.4 pounds of garbage (discarded) per person per day” released into city and neighboring landfills (Less garbage on campus, 3). A major problem in many cities, towns, and neighborhoods is lack of public awareness and the idea that much of the public does not know how much of the garbage that they have produced inside their own homes affects the overall balance of the environment. Fortunately, within the last century the public, through the use of advertising and educational programs, has begun to realize that landfills are reaching capacity--yet the garbage keeps pilling up. A future goal and result of this research will be the beginning processes associated with extensive changes in environmental laws and regulations for future generations –including, but going far and beyond college and university campuses.
Subtopic: Waste Disposal
“In 1988, the United States had 8,000 municipal solid waste disposal landfills in existence” (Gardner, 13). In 1996, the number plummeted to 3,091 as a result of not complying with federal environmental regulations or because old ones exceeded and/or are exceeding, their capacity (Gardner, 13). Currently, the issues surrounding solid waste disposal issues have become major headaches for problems troubling many state and local officials. It is not surprising that as a result, many companies, colleges and universities, and other large interest groups are being asked to change their methods of solid waste disposal and incorporate new methods. Unfortunately, the question, “Where will all the garbage go in the future” is becoming more difficult to answer with each passing year.
Subtopic: Municipal Waste –
Solid municipal waste disposal is defined as anything that is thrown into a city dump that cannot be recycled or composted. More often than not, most of the garbage that is deposited into municipal landfills is commercial waste, including “Waste from businesses, restaurants, and stores”, such as paper and cardboard (Chertow, 13), and residential waste, such as cleaning supplies, cloth, etc. One past example of a city dump that is reaching its capacity is the Fresh Kills dump in New York City, New York. “The Fresh Kills dump is the city’s last remaining landfill and the largest in the world, covering 1200 hectares” (Gardner, 14). It is also the highest peak in Staten Island. Because of overcapacity, the dump is set to close in 2001 (though it was reopened and used as a sorting and recovery site for the rubble of the World Trade Center). If abandoned and closed, the city would be forced to transport enormous amounts of waste to neighboring cities at very high a cost, more expensive than what most city governments are willing to pay.
The European Health Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports that, “Much of the waste that goes into municipal dump sites is organic waste and 36% of the municipal waste is sent over to dumps in neighboring states ” (Gardner, 14). While the stress that is being put on many dumps throughout the United States is increasing, the community impacts from such stress affiliated with waste dumps in other parts of the world is increasing ten fold. In many developing countries, “Organic matter accounts for more than two thirds of the total waste stream and food scraps and yard trimmings alone account for well over half of the municipal waste” (Gardner, 54). From these statistics, we can see that solid municipal waste disposal is neither a logical nor a guaranteed method of disposal in the future. If the current dumps that are currently in existence at this point in time are being filled to capacity, what are the prospects 40 or 50 years from now, when the increased world population will generate still more garbage?
Subtopic: College and University Campuses –
In 1992, “14.5 million students were enrolled in colleges and universities across the U.S.” “These 14.5 million students accounted for 3.6 million tons of waste” (Making Less Garbage, 7). For most people that is a lot of waste, however, when a school combines 2500 students and a select number of faculty and staff, there is a potential for a great deal of garbage. Furthermore, if this waste and garbage is not dealt with appropriately, in an environmentally friendly way, additional problems could develop.
One institution that is currently experiencing the problems associated with solid waste disposal is Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga, CA. This problem is currently provoking negative attention from students, faculty, and staff and questions about where the waste is being discharged. Most of this garbage represents items that are thrown away by students in the dorms. The rest of the garbage represents the overwhelmingly large quantities of food that are produced by the food staff but which goes unconsumed and thrown away by students who eat at the dining hall and the college café.
Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga, CA has one dining hall and a café that caters to the dietary needs of all the students, faculty, and staff who either attend classes or work at the campus on a daily basis. The total amount of food prepared by Sodexho, the on-campus food service, is delivered between four and seven times each week, at a total weekly cost of $48,000. To assure freshness, the produce and bakery goods are delivered every day of the week. In order to guarantee freshness, milk is delivered twice a week and amounts to a total amount of 15,000 gallons a year. Sodexho also purchases 90,000 gallons of syrup (premix for soft drinks) and 10,000 gallons of orange juice every year. “Most of the food is shipped locally within the United States” (Information provided by Matt Carrol, Head Manager). The meats are shipped from a variety of different meat packers. The produce, depending on the season, is transported locally by truck from many of the large produce farms throughout California. Canned food is shipped to the United States from distribution plants throughout the world. Cheese and dairy products are brought in locally from the dairy farms throughout California. Finally, Sodexho does not use any organic foods. Everything that they prepare could (and probably was) fertilized with chemicals, injected with hormones, and/or sprayed with insecticides.
Lunch is the biggest and busiest mealtime out of the four meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night. Every 15 minutes, the lady at the front desk takes a customer count and this determines how much food needs to be prepared for each meal. In other words, depending on the day, the staff could prepare a lot of food and have large amounts left over, or the staff could prepare an insufficient amount of food and run out. I have heard Matt Carrol mention many times, “It is hard to judge how much food to prepare ” (Information provided by Matt Carrol)!
Most of the food that is discarded by students eating at the dining hall is disposed of in a large compactor that crushes the items and allows large amounts of food waste to accumulate until it is hauled away. Sodexho, which caters to both the dinning hall and the café, is the largest producer and generator of food waste on the Saint Mary’s campus. Most of the garbage that is thrown away on a daily basis is considered “Tray Waste”. This type of waste is generated by students who either took too much food, or did not like what they took either because they did not enjoy it or because they were not hungry anymore. At the end of the day, all of the solid waste that was generated in the dinning hall and in the café is deposited into a large 15-yard wet compactor, which is capable of holding large amounts of food waste, particularly discarded vegetables, meats, liquids, plates, and cups. The campus also uses a 30-yard green waste composter that is used by Buildings and Grounds, to process yard waste generated by landscape trimmings and by cutting the large areas of Texas Blue Grass. Even though the college has an efficient 30-yard green waste composter, Sodexho does not make use of it as it should.
In all, the campus generates about 50 tons of garbage a month and 500 to 600 tons of garbage a year (Information provided by a Buildings and Ground Staff member). The garbage is picked up six or seven times a month. The garbage bill, including Sodexho’s and the other services on campus is $38,000 dollars per year (Buildings and Grounds). When I inquired how the garbage bill compared to the cost of other services on campus, the staff member replied “That is a lot of money spent on garbage to be hauled away to the dumps that are already exceeding capacity”. After listening to what he told me about the garbage situation on campus, I had to agree with him.
The company that collects the garbage on campus is a local garbage disposal firm, Pleasant Hill Bayshore Disposal. Once the truck comes and hauls away the garbage, the campus never sees the garbage again. The waste is taken to the dump, which is located in the northern part of Contra Costa County, quite far away from Moraga and Lafayette. Similarly, the otherrecycling materials on campus are collected by Pleasant Hill Bayshore Disposal. I was surprised to realize that, yet most students do not know whether there is any recycling on campus at all.
Through conducting research for this paper, I have found detailed information about the current recycling methods implemented on campus. Recycling is currently limited to cardboard, aluminum, glass, plastic, and paper. The cardboard is compressed in a large compactor located behind the Sodexho dining hall and is sold to other companies as a way to generate profit for itself (Information provided by Matt Carrol). Everything that can be recycled is collected in bins marked “Recycling” and is taken to the recycling plant where it is separated into different categories to be reprocessed.
Unlike other colleges and universities through out the United States, Saint Mary’s congratulates itself on implementing many of the current environmental safety measures associated with waste disposal. Nonetheless, there are two sustainability environmental safety methods that many people are not aware of and are not being observed by the college. These two methods are referred to as recycling and kitchen waste. For example, the college places recycling bins in many of the classrooms and dorm rooms, yet most of the bins are overflowing by the end of the day with garbage and other materials that cannot be recycled. This example constitutes the idea that student education and student awareness about recycling are not closely regulated on this campus. On almost any other college campus in America there is a high awareness and valuing of recycling. Another example is shown by the size of many of the recycle bins that are seen around campus. Many of these bins are small compared to the garbage bins that are placed in areas where people are least likely to think about recycling. A third environmental safety measure that the campus does not implement is the use of a garbage disposal in the dining hall kitchen (Information provided by Matt Carrol, head manager of Sodexho) as opposed to a conventional drain. I was told by Matt Carrol that Sodexho replaced its garbage disposal with a regular sink drain because the company was told that the chopped up food caused problems in the pipes and eventually drained directly into the ocean where the pollution generated negative problems for the oceanic environment. Nonetheless, through intensive research, I have found that the advantages associated with having a garbage disposal in a sink far out weighed the disadvantages. For example, a garbage disposal creates “No solid waste disposal in (a) landfill” (Use Garbage Disposal for Produce Waste). For many environmentalists and politicians, this is a positive achievement directed towards reducing the amount of waste deposited in landfills. “The cost of installing a garbage disposal is $1,000 and the assumed operating costs do not exceed $20/hr” (Use Garbage Disposal for Produce Waste). Solid waste, if directly disposed of in a dumpster or city dump, “would fill up an 8 cubic yard dumpster that must be picked up each day at a cost of $5.40 per pickup for a total cost of $1,971 per year. A garbage disposal, however, in regards to the amount of water used and waste water discharged would not exceed “20 gallons per day at (a cost of no more than) $.002 a gallon per day” (Use Garbage Disposal For Produce Waste). This information shows that, though some environmentalists sense that a garbage disposal might hurt the environment on one aspect of its current use, there are many advantages that are associated with its use that would benefit the global environment in the short term and long term.
While some people might think that the waste disposal methods currently in existence at the college are feasible, many do not. These people wish that the college would become more environmentally friendly. I have heard from students and professors on campus, while walking to and from classes, “If the college had more recycling bins and actually showed an effort to dispose of recycled materials accordingly, I would be more inclined to recycle, instead of just throwing away aluminum cans, plastics, and cardboard” (Public opinion on campus). Another example of students on campus being dismissive or showing disgust towards the current recycling methods came from my three roommates who live in one of the dorms on campus. They have said in the past, “When the cleaning lady comes to the room and takes out the garbage, instead of putting the recyclables in a bin specially made for recycling, she just puts everything directly in the garbage can along with all of the other garbage. How can she sift through all of the garbage bags and take out what is recyclable? That would take a lot of work, energy, and money that she does not have and that Saint Mary’s College is not willing to pay her” (Information provided by one of my four roommates). As one can see from this information, recycling is an environmental safety measure that is not looked highly upon by the students, staff, and faculty currently attending school and working at Saint Mary’s College of California.
Until Saint Mary’s extensively analyzes its current recycling program and increase its efficiency and awareness, the recycling program is going to remain in its present state for many years to come. From the research that I have done on recycling and composting programs, I believe that the college would benefit from a campus wide compost program. I am sure at some time in the past, the school had a small farm where food scraps were recycled, either as animal feed or garden compost. I think that it would be a good idea to put compost bins throughout the campus and allow for students and faculty to deposit their organic food waste and other types of solid waste into them. I also think that it would benefit the beauty of the campus. The lawn areas, that make-up the landscape of Saint Mary’s College, require ample amounts of water to keep them looking green. With compost, instead of water, the college would be able to save money on water bills and put forth the money toward other programs that are in desperate need of dire reform. In regards to recycling, the college should do a better job informing and educating the students and faculty about recycling programs. First of all, the students and faculty should be told that there is a recycling program on campus, but it is not a very good one. The college should also follow up this statement by giving an incentive to the students if they were to help revise the current recycling program, perhaps an extra class or volunteer credit. There are many ways to get students involved. Saint Mary’s is ideally a community, and a community means an obligation to well-being for all, not just personal convenience. It is the responsibility of the students and the college to work together to implement these types of programs. Nevertheless, without the administration’s support provided by the College, any programs of this nature would be difficult to implement. If the College was to implement a more efficient recycling program, the program would reduce the cost and amount of garbage that the college or its contracted disposal firms would have to haul away by a truck to the landfills. In the second part of this research paper, my partner will introduce the cost, benefits, and disadvantages associated with recycling. For now, the cost to implement a recycling program on a college campus would range from “$10 to $30 (per student) and bins would cost (schools) $40” to install and maintain (Hinkamp, Low Cost Composting). The future looks bright for Saint Mary’s College, but there is still a lot that needs to be changed.
Subtopic: Methods currently in existence for reducing large amounts of waste disposal on the Saint Mary’s campus
Sodexho is currently implementing a program on campus that will hopefully reduce the negative impact on the environment caused by the discarding of non-environmentally safe food and handling materials. Sodexho has switched from using Styrofoam plates, to compostable plates made from recycled paper. For the most part, the switch to these types of plates has been successful. Nevertheless, the disadvantages associated with their limited use for holding hot foods have created some problems. These problems included, when students tried to heat their food in a microwave or carry the food from the serving counter to the table, it was too difficult. Along with the implementation of compostable plates, Sodexho has also increased the use of reusable flatware and glasses. These have drastically reduced the number of plastic cutlery that would usually be deposited into the garbage cans.
Sodexho currently employees 110 people in the dining hall and in the café to work at any given time. The staff costs Sodexho $42,000 per week in hourly wages and benefits. If Sodexho was to implement the use of garbage separators to separate the food waste from the liquid, cups, and plastic utensils, it would cost the firm and the college an additional $80,000 a year in salary expenses. Because of this, Sodexho is choosing to remain steadfast with the current methods of disposal.
Subtopic: Comparison of Saint Mary’s methods of solid waste disposal to that of other campuses
The type and number of environmental programs currently in progress at colleges and universities differs drastically. In many colleges and universities, students are the key to implementing recycling and solid waste compost systems on campus. There are two main universities that have implemented programs through the connection of student and college support structures. These two universities are the University of California at Berkeley and Middlebury College in Vermont. In 1993, a group of students founded “Berkeley Worms”. The goal and intent of this group was to start a solid waste program that applied to all of the dining halls on campus. Whatever solid food waste was left at the end of the day was disposed of in large-scale compost bins. The project was geared towards “Diverting waste with high-volume decomposition systems” or “rot stuff” to fertilizer that could be used to better soils and gardens” (www.ocf.berkeley.edu). According to the article, the group “Composts about 200 pounds of food waste each year, about 70% of the waste from the campus dining halls” (Gallagher). The group was also dedicated to educating students and the campus community on what it means to compost and what benefits arise from all of the hard work and commitment. Along with educating the community about the advantages of composting, Berkeley Worms, in conjunction with the Cal Berkeley Dining Halls, worked extensively to “Donate excess food to a local homeless shelter and gives food scraps to an on-campus worm collective” (Gallagher). Similar to the program formed at the University of California at Berkeley, Middlebury College created a solid waste compost program through the help of students, staff, and faculty. Through the use of this program, the college has seen positive effects in the increase of “Annual savings of some $25,000 by sending food residuals to a compost facility rather than to a waste disposal operation” (Gardner, 29). These programs have saved the colleges thousands and hundreds of dollars. It is truly astonishing that colleges and universities are only now beginning to implement these types of programs on their campuses. “Colleges and Universities have the potential to serve as models of waste prevention that students can bring to the working world after graduation” (Making Less Garbage on Campus, A hands-on-guide, 7).
It is important that these programs are continually funded by the college or university and that interest steadily increases over the years. Hopefully with the increased knowledge and education currently being provided to students, these programs will continue to evolve. Maybe then, Saint Mary’s College will become a truly environmentally friendly community, not a waste and problem generator, but one that in the best tradition of the LaSallian community, one that focuses on protecting the well being of our society can catch on and implement a program, say a recycling or solid waste composting program that will reduce the dependence on garbage compactors, garbage trucks, and low and be hold landfills.
Devin,
I certainly did enjoy reading the paper. Well done! You accomplished your goals effectively. The question now is how to bring this to the positive attention of the administration.
GE 5 May 2005 A