PERC- the Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium Spring-Summer '14 PHE-FRC Campus Updates

USciences Updates

Todd Young — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 19:07:04 GMT

The Sodexo team at USciences has partnered with Organic Diversions to be the hauler for our kitchen food waste. During the Fall 2015 term the team is concentrating on reducing the amount of food waste generated from the production kitchens and serveries but is compositing unfortunate food waste. We are excited to be able to report our efforts as we start to build our history with Organic Diversions.

The Sodexo team has also partnered with the universities new food recovery organization. This organization run by students is contacted by Sodexo when large amounts of prepared food is availabel and they bring it to local shelters and serve it restaurant style to the residents. To date a good amount of food has been brought to these shelters feeding people that need it.

Ursinus College Fall 2015 Semester Update

Ron Wood — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 17:03:36 GMT

We continue this semester with recycling and food donations.

We have had a setback with our composting as our waste hauler can no longer take our compostable materials as the site they were hauling to has been forced to close. Whatever we don’t recycle is taken to a local Energy-from-Waste facility.

Our campus is currently recruiting for a sustainability program coordinator.

Franklin and Marshall Update

Tom Simpson — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 17:13:54 GMT

Thus far in 2015 (Jan-July) we have composted 39.17 tons. For comparison purposes, in all of 2014 Franklin and Marshall composted a total of 74.11 tons of food waste.

We continue to expand our collection to new events and venues. The biggest addition for the fall semester is the retail restaurant in the student center. The center has been filing nine 32-gallon toters for collection three days a week. We are experiencing some of the usual growing pains, with contamination rates higher than our dining hall. Signage, education, and various media are being used to reduce the contamination rate, as are adjustments to the tableware offered for use.

Another addition is theFair Trade Cafe', a student-run meal prepared weekly using local organic foods and served in our Wohlsen Center for the Sustainable Environment.

Sodexo is using Lean Path, a sophisticated tracking system for monitoring pre-consumer waste with the eventual goal of reducing the waste.

As a side note, our compostables hauler is now removing animal bedding and plant waste from our biology/psychology lab building.