DANIELLE KRAMER STAFF WRITER
Continuing its efforts to reduce the amount of food and energy waste, Wartburg is taking steps to ensure sustainability through strategic measures of waste reduction.
Dining Services, along with the Energy and Environmental Sustainability Initiative Task Force, or EESI, met Tuesday to discuss Wartburg’s future goals toward food waste and sustainability.
Dining Services issued a list last February stating the changes that were being made to conserve energy which included going trayless, an alteration that saved nearly 15,000 gallons of water within 48 days, according to EESI reports. Now Wartburg is going one step further, making efforts to reduce waste inside and outside of the Mensa.
“There are two main components to decreasing the amount of food waste,” said Margaret Empie, director of dining services. “The first part starts with the food preparation and production. It’s our job to record and keep track of how much food needs to be made for each recipe. Our staff is very frugal; they are very conscious of the amount of food that is being prepared and don’t like to throw things out.
“The second part,” Empie said, “is that the food has to be good. If it’s not good, students aren’t going to eat it and then it all goes to waste. This also means that we have to be consistent with our recipes. An entrée can’t be good one day and bad the next.”
Along with efforts inside the kitchen, EESI is also concerned about where the food waste will end up.
“We’re going to try to bring back composting this year,” said Jen Wendland, assistant sustainability coordinator to EESI.
In the past, Wartburg used a compost pile to dispose of waste such as coffee grounds, egg shells and melon rinds, which had not been touched by students.
However, within a short period of time, the amount of waste exceeded the space for the compost pile and posed a dilemma for the college.
“We know how to gather it; we just don’t know where it can go,” Empie said.
The college, continuously looking for new locations to put the compost, has considered other options for waste management as well.
“Instead of sending waste through the garbage disposal, which uses a large amount of water and energy, they could send it through a pulper and it gets turned into food for pigs,” Wendland said. “Then we can pump it into large barrels and send it off to different farms. It could be another source of income for the college.”
Along with the efforts the college is making toward sustainability, students, can help the cause as well.
“Going trayless was a great way to reduce waste. If students could continue to only take what they need, we could significantly reduce the amount of food that is wasted,” Wendland said.
If students have suggestions for sustainability or other ways to reduce the amount of food waste, they can e-mail sustainability@wartburg.edu
Photo: David Gartner scrapes off plates in the dish room of the Mensa. Dining Services is trying to keep track of what food students do and don't like in an effort to reduce waste. Photo by Amanda Gahler