Ohio school a leader on reducing food waste in dining halls

Bowling Green State University in Ohio is taking initiative to reduce food waste on campus through source reduction and green disposal methods. These methods help the university keep 32 to 45 tons of waste out of landfills.

How does it work?

Source reduction: 

• To decrease food waste at the source and prevent a surplus of food that they would have to discard, the school chefs have in-depth discussions about dishes and menu items to make sure that they use as much of each food as possible. 
• The bowls and other dishes in the cafeteria are also specifically designed to prevent students from overfilling their plates. The students are welcome to eat as many servings as they would like, but as we all know, sometimes our eyes can be bigger than our bellies, causing us to dish up more food than we can actually eat. These intentionally sized plates help prevent this. 

Green disposal:

• The campus composts any food that doesn’t get eaten.