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EPIB Trail
Volume 12, Issue 1
Where Does Rutgers Food Waste Go? By Alejandra Aguilar
In the United States, we live in a throw-away society, and have become so accustomed to a fast-paced way of living, that we often forget about the repercussions of having food so readily accessible. Food waste is no exception to this fact. As the agriculture industry innovates ways to keep up with expanding population numbers, it is inevitable that more food waste will end up in landfills. There are several ways by which the Rutgers University community tries to mitigate food waste around the campuses. The Rutgers dining halls have implemented a few remedies for food waste from reaching landfills. For example, a Somat pulper extracts the water from food waste while grinding it to make the food more compactible, therefore taking up less space in a landfill. The compacted waste is allegedly picked up by a pig farmer who uses it as pig feed on his farm. In addition, there are nine aerobic respirators established in places such as Henry’s Dinner, IFNH, and the dining halls, as stated by Joe Charette who is the head of Rutgers Dining Facilities. In addition, food biodigesters are also established on campus, but it is unclear how many and how actively they are being used. I met with executive board member of the Rutgers Compost Club, Morgan Mark and Secretary Brigitte Shackerman to ask them a few questions on where they think we could collectively improve our food waste production at Rutgers. The compost club held their compost collection on Saturday September 20th on the College Avenue campus. The club successfully collected over seventy pounds of food scraps. The Executive
