Susquehanna University Working with Dining Services to Recycle Food Waste

The Office of Sustainability at Susquehanna University and Aramark, a dining services provider, are collaborating to divert food waste.

Food waste from SU’s Evert Dining Room will be diverted to the school’s Campus Garden. Aramark dining staff will collect pre-consumer food waste in five-gallon buckets every day. That waste will be delivered to the garden where students will turn the compost regularly and then use it to fertilize and cultivate crops.

“In Pennsylvania, nearly 40% of the waste sent to landfills or incinerated consists of organic waste. As it decays, it generates methane, a greenhouse gas that poses a greater threat to both the environment and human health compared to carbon dioxide,” said Drew Hubbell, associate professor of English and chair of Susquehanna’s Sustainability Committee. “Diverting food waste from landfills to composting reduces greenhouse gas emissions, conserves natural resources, and practices circular economy principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle.”

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