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Projects Updates for Food Waste Reduction

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  1. Zero Waste iCAP Meeting 4/25/23

    Associated Project(s): 
    Increase Recycling Rates
    Green Sports Alliance (GSA)
    Project4less
    Food Waste Reduction
    Education iCAP Team
    Engagement iCAP Team
    Zero Waste iCAP Team

    On April 25th, the Zero Waste iCAP team met to discuss the State Farm Center Recycling (ZW011) recommendation and brainstorm on the Zero Waste iCAP summary report for the 22-23 FY. 

    Meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  2. Zero Waste iCAP Meeting 12/8/2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Develop Sustainable Purchasing Policies
    Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) Climate Action Plan
    Food Waste Reduction
    Plastic Bag Recycling
    Zero Waste iCAP Team

    On December 8th, the Zero Waste iCAP team met to discuss a new approach to creating recommendations for next semester. During the meeting, the team created subcommittees based on aspects of the key priorities document and provided feedback on an environmental engineering sustainability project. 

    Meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  3. Zero Waste iCAP Meeting 11/7/2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) Climate Action Plan
    Green Sports Alliance (GSA)
    Food Waste Reduction
    Increase Recycling Rates
    Project4less
    Zero Waste iCAP Team

    On November 7th, the Zero Waste iCAP team met to discuss DIA sustainability initiatives with Tim Knox and made edits on the Project 4 Less expansion recommendation to be submitted in the coming month(s). 

    Meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  5. Zero Waste iCAP Team Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Achieve Zero Waste
    Zero Waste Recommendations Summary
    Food Waste Reduction
    Large-Scale Food Waste Composting

    The Zero Waste iCAP Team met on Thursday, January 27 to finalize the recommendations drafted at the end of last semester, the Water Drinking Behavior Survey and the Water Filter System Tracking. The team also discussed several recommendations they intend to pursue this semester, including: Adopt-a-Highway program, Food Literacy Project, Composting Committee, P Card Training and Sustainable Receipt options. Meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  6. "How Can We Reduce Waste from Agricultural and Food Systems?"

    Associated Project(s): 
    iSEE Congress
    Food Waste Reduction

    True food circularity must include waste reduction on the agricultural and consumer sides. Don't miss this third iSEE Congress webinar on "Circular Food Systems," with Brian Roe, Van Buren Professor of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at Ohio State; and Tom Theis, Director of The Institute for Environmental Science and Policy, University of Illinois Chicago. Register here >>>

    November 3, 12–1 pm • Zoom webinar

    Julie Wurth • Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment

    "How Can We Reduce Waste from Agricultural and Food Systems?"

  7. Compost Tumbler at Newmark Civil Engineering Building

    Associated Project(s): 
    Food Waste Reduction

    Roman Makhnenko explains that there are available funds from a SSC sponsored project that can be used to to buy a compost tumbler for the Newmark Civil Engineering Building. Additionally, Roman wants to discuss with Meredith where the tumbler should be emptied once it gets full. 

  8. New compost tumbler at NSRC!

    Associated Project(s): 
    Compost at National Soybean Research Center (NSRC)
    Food Waste Reduction

    Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In an effort to be more “green” today and every day, we now have a compost tumbler on the west side of the National Soybean Research Center, thanks to SSC funding. This is the first publicly-accessible compost drop-off on campus!

    Please feel free to take advantage of this opportunity to sustainably dispose of your fruit/vegetable scraps (without stickers), tea bags, coffee grounds/filters, eggshells, shredded paper etc. While this 60-gallon compost tumbler is housed at the NSRC building, this drop-off opportunity is available to all. Simply unscrew either end of the tumbler and drop your items inside. Attached are several photos of the location and setup, as well as a list of the acceptable/unacceptable items. 

    The end-product will ultimately be used to fertilize a pollinator garden at NSRC. More details to come. 

    Attached Files: 

  10. 12/18 Zero Waste SWATeam Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Food Waste Reduction
    Large-Scale Food Waste Composting
    Increase Recycling through the WTS
    Reuse Surplus Goods and Valuable "Waste"
    Develop Sustainable Purchasing Policies
    Sustainable Procurement Reports
    Sustainable Procurement Reports
    Grind2Energy

    Attached are the meeting minutes from the Zero Waste SWATeam on 12/18/2020. The following agenda items were discussed:

    • Grind2Energy Additional Scope.
    • NERC membership.
    • Mask Terracycle Program.
    • Organics Master Plan.
    • Vending Machine Single-Use Plastics Replacement.
    • Mitigating single-serve options in third-party vendors in Union.
    • Reusable dining operations during COVID.
    • Reuse of Surplus Goods.
    • Battery Recycling Options.
    • Purchasing Order Fufillment: Sustainable Options.
    • Purchasing Sustainability Digital Booklet.
    • Food Waste Reduction Webinar Engagement Opportunity.
    • Sustainability Integrations within punch-out catalogues/iBUY.
    Attached Files: 

  11. 10/16 Zero Waste SWATeam Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Large-Scale Food Waste Composting
    Food Waste Reduction
    Enviropures

    Attached are the meeting minutes and chat from the Zero Waste SWATeam meeting on 10/16.

    Discussed were the following topics:

    Reducing Food Waste

    • Post-consumer food waste prevention
    • Post-consumer food waste recovery

    Vending Machine Alternatives to Single-use plastics

    Plastic Recovery

    Single Use Plastics

    Illini Union Shadowbox attachment

    Food Literacy Project

     

    Attached Files: 

  12. 2020 iCAP October Final Objectives: Zero Waste SWATeam

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP 2020: Illinois Climate Action Plan
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Achieve Zero Waste
    Food Waste Reduction
    Sustainability Engagement and Outreach
    Increase Recycling Rates
    Reuse Surplus Goods and Valuable "Waste"
    Green Cleaning Products and Practices

    Attached is the final draft of the recommended 2020 iCAP objectives from the Zero Waste SWATeam. 

    Any meeting minutes from October 2019 or November 2019 may reference the following categories: 

    • Food waste: Reducing & Diverting Food Waste
    • Education
    • Purchasing
    • Increasing Recycling Rates
    • Reducing Consumption
    • Increasing Reuse Rates
    • Source Reduction
    • Builsing Cleaning and Maintenance

    There will be a revised version by the end of the 2019 Fall Semester after iWG gives feedback for the SWATeams to revise.

    Attached Files: 

  13. Food Waste Management presentation to Housing

    Associated Project(s): 
    Food Waste Reduction
    Sustainable Food Practices
    Grind2Energy
    Reduce Foodwaste

    On November 12, 2018, Sarthak Prasad from Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) presented a Food Waste Management study to compare the current mode of food waste management (EnviroPure) with 7 other food waste management equipment. 

    He recommended the Housing at UofI switched from the EnviroPure systems to InSinkerator's Grind2Energy systems as food waste processing system, before sending the processed food waste (in slurry form) to the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District (UCSD) in Urbana, IL. UCSD's Wastewater Treatment Plant  (WWTP) has existing anaerobic digesters that can convert food waste into valuable biogas for electricity generation.

    See attached the presentation in PDF form and the detailed cost analysis.

    Attached Files: 

  14. Discussion about food waste quantities

    Associated Project(s): 
    Food Waste Reduction

    Lance Schideman, Morgan White, Linhan Yang, Manying Zhang, and Kulsoom Abbas met to discuss progress on the projections of total food waste by building on campus.  We will adjust the total estimated, based on population changes over the course of the year.

  15. Food Handling info from SSF

    Associated Project(s): 
    Vermicompost
    Food Waste Reduction

    Matt Turino at the Sustainable Student Farm provided this overview of the food waste handling / transportation related to the Vermicompost project.

    "So we only collected Pre-consumer waste from Busey-Evans so only the things that were cut off the usuable parts of vegetables and fruits.  We had special  30 gallon trash cans that only existed in the kitchen of the Busey-Evans so there was almost never other kinds of trash.  If we saw some while handling we would remove it but we did not need to sort it.

    We had no packaging or animal products in the compost.

    We used a pick up truck to transport the containers and we did not have a good way to load these.  We often had to lift 50-90 lb trash containers up into the truck bed, and us not having the correct equipment contributed to it not being a sustainable program for us.  The waste was extremely wet and so something that made it tricky to handle and and to transport.  We were using leaves from U of I landscaping for the Brown material.

    I did not track the cost of our transportation because we would often drop our produce off and pick up the waste on the same trip.  We were driving a pickup truck about 3 miles per trip 2-3 times a week.  We were picking up between 60-100 gallons of food waste per week during the semester. 

    Also we were using a vermi-compost unit which was not the most effective system for this, if you wanted to do a composting set up I would recommend a larger windrow set up."

  16. IWG Meeting Minutes November 30, 2017

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP Working Group (iWG)
    Topical iCAP Teams
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Solar Farm 2.0
    Energy Conservation and Building Standards (ECBS) SWATeam
    PPA for National Petascale Computing Facility
    Biomass Boiler at the Energy Farm
    Incorporate Sustainability Principles into Campus Master Plan
    Water and Stormwater SWATeam
    Food Waste Reduction
    Green Lab Program
    Attached Files: 

  17. iWG meeting agenda November 30, 2017

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP Working Group (iWG)
    Topical iCAP Teams
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Solar Farm 2.0
    Energy Conservation and Building Standards (ECBS) SWATeam
    PPA for National Petascale Computing Facility
    Biomass Boiler at the Energy Farm
    Incorporate Sustainability Principles into Campus Master Plan
    Water and Stormwater SWATeam
    Food Waste Reduction
    Green Lab Program

    see file

    Attached Files: 

  18. Dibbs students meet with sustainability staff

    Associated Project(s): 
    Food Waste Reduction

    Ximing Cai and Morgan White met with students Sohinee Oswal and Devaki Belwalkar about their food waste reduction app "Dibbs."  We discussed the possibility of connecting their efforts with iCAP objectives.  They are focused primarily on grocery stores, so the best option for working together is for Dibbs to connect with Dining Services and their convenience stores (Chomps, 57 North, and Penn Station).