From: Scrogum, Joy Joann <jscrogum@illinois.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2023 2:11 PM
To: Kim, Hannah <hannahk9@illinois.edu>
Cc: Jacobson, Debra F <djacobso@illinois.edu>; Feher, Savannah <sfeher@illinois.edu>; Samaras, Zach <zsamaras@illinois.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; Patterson, Shawn L <spttrsn@illinois.edu>
Subject: Food waste on UIUC campus

Hello, Hannah. I’m a member of the Technical Assistance Program (TAP) at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC). You recently contacted our director, Kevin OBrien, about a project you’re planning related to separating food waste from the rest of the waste stream to see if this might improve capture and quality of recyclable materials at the Waste Transfer Station. Kevin suggested in his reply that TAP may be able to help you because of our work on zero waste projects and interest in food waste reduction in particular, and he copied Debra Jacobson, who leads TAP, on his reply. She in turn discussed your inquiry with our zero waste team—Zach Samaras, Savannah Feher, and myself—and we reached out to Daphne Hulse, our campus zero waste coordinator at UI Facilities & Services (F&S) to discuss this further. TAP has worked with F&S on multiple waste management projects over the years, and have been discussing potential campus waste audits that are tentatively planned for the fall.

Daphne recalled that you were recently part of a tour of the Waste Transfer Station and that you had spoken briefly about this with her and Shawn Patterson, who oversees operations at the transfer station. All of us—ISTC TAP and F&S staff—are interested in learning more about your ideas and supporting you however we can. We’re all passionate about improving waste management on campus and love to see students showing interest and initiative!

Note that of our TAP crew, I’m the only one based here in Champaign, but we’ve all worked with this and other universities on waste management projects. TAP staff won’t be able to directly advise you if you require a faculty advisor for your project, but we’re happy to work with F&S to help you think through logistics, potential challenges, and how best to take your next steps. If we’re not able to serve as official advisors, we’ll do whatever we can to help you identify campus contacts who can.

For the sake of efficiency, we’d like to try to schedule a conversation with you, TAP’s zero waste team, Daphne, and Shawn so we all hear about your ideas directly from you and can better collaborate. Before I send out a poll to select a time for a Zoom or Microsoft Teams meeting, I want to be respectful of your class schedule. Please let me know if there are particular days/times M-F between 8 AM and 5 PM that you’re regularly free from school or work obligations. From there, I’ll create and send out a poll so we can schedule a virtual meeting that works for everyone’s schedules.

We look forward to learning more about your ideas. Best wishes,

Joy

Joy Scrogum
Assistant Scientist, Sustainability
LEED Green Associate | Sustainability Excellence Professional (SEP)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Prairie Research Institute
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC)
Champaign, IL 61820
217.333.8948 | jscrogum@illinois.edu
www.istc.illinois.edu | www.prairie.illinois.edu

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joyscrogum/
 


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