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Waste Watchers weigh in on trashed food

By Chris Eldredge

April 14, 2009 10:41 p.m.

During their sophomore years, Heidi Winner and Alisa Ahmadian noticed that UCLA students living in the dorms waste a lot of food.

Interested in finding out just how much is left on the trays, the now fourth-year students organized volunteers to measure the leftovers.

Winner and Ahmadian, who met in seventh grade and are now roommates, call themselves “Waste Watchers.”

The pair have found that the average student wastes about 0.18 pounds of food each meal, the equivalent of three slices of bread, said Winner, co-facilitator of Waste Watchers.

“Considering we serve over 20,000 people a day, that’s quite a lot of food waste,” said Robert Gilbert, sustainability coordinator for Housing and Hospitality Services.

By making students more aware of their leftovers, Waste Watchers aims to save money and help the environment, Winner said.

“If you were at home, you wouldn’t use five cups because your mom wouldn’t wash them,” said Ahmadian, who is the other co-facilitator.

This year, Waste Watchers has formed an Action Research Team through the UCLA Environmental Health Sciences Department. Seven UCLA students, including Winner and Ahmadian, are now receiving two to three units for working closely with faculty and dining staff to make UCLA more sustainable by reducing food waste.

Waste Watchers started more than two years ago, Ahmadian said.

“The Action Research Team presented a really good opportunity to present our work to administrators and actually effect institutional change,” she said.

In weighing leftovers in the De Neve and Hedrick dining halls, they have also noticed some patterns.

During finals week, for example, students typically waste a lot more food, perhaps because they are studying in the dining halls, Winner said.

Uneaten side dishes also add up.

“We would get trays with literally three or four plates of just peas, carrots and mashed potatoes,” she said.

The dining staff has been receptive to feedback and shares Waste Watchers’ goal of reducing leftover food, Winner added.

De Neve, for example, now plans to offer students a choice of plates without side dishes, she said.

Waste Watchers aims to change students’ attitudes and habits by providing more accurate information.

Winner said she, like many students, used to think, “I waste food that sucks, but I pay a ton of money to come eat at De Neve, so I can waste whatever I want.”

However, when students waste less, UCLA Dining Services saves money by purchasing less food. These savings can be used to lower fees or purchase more sustainable foods such as local and organic ingredients or cage-free eggs, Gilbert said.

Action Research Team members spent last quarter scraping dishes and weighing food waste to measure how much was thrown away. This quarter, while they will still periodically measure progress, their aim is educating residents on the Hill. As part of that effort, there are a few projects underway.

The team is working with the Office of Residential Life to get data and pictures about food waste displayed on the LCD screens above the entrances to the dining halls, Winner said.

An educational video and “customize your order” signs will remind students to ask for smaller portions.

The Action Research Team is also interested in calculating and displaying the carbon footprint of waste, Winner said. A separate effort focuses on getting students to reduce their napkin use, she added.

“A lot of trays are reasonable and have just one or two (napkins), but other trays are just ridiculous,” Winner said. “They have like seven or eight napkins.”

The team is working with staff to explore switching to recycled napkins, which are cheaper, Winner said. And there are also plans to place stickers that say “These are made from trees” on napkin dispensers to remind students to conserve.

All of these efforts will culminate in an all-Hill challenge day later this quarter, when students will be asked to reduce waste by a fixed amount, perhaps 5 percent, Winner said.

Other UC campuses including Davis, Irvine and Santa Cruz have similar efforts to reduce food waste, Ahmadian said.

Though both Winner and Ahmadian are graduating this year, they expect Waste Watchers to continue because it helps well-intentioned students come up with ways to live more sustainably.

“We know that a lot of people are interested in doing the right thing,” but struggle to find contributions they can make, Winner said.

Through educating the students around them, she and the other Waste Watchers hope to change this.

“I feel like there’s a giant disconnect in our society between realizing that food had a life before you obtained it and that it has a life after,” Winner said.

“Waste Watchers brings to light the secret life of your food.”

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Chris Eldredge
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