Week 1: Meetings, meetings, meetings

This week we took a step back to meet with administrators on campus. We coordinated with Compost Team B to reach out to representatives from Notre Dame Food Services (NDFS) and the Office of Sustainability. Matthew, Monika, and Madeline (from compost team B) met with Cheryl Bauer, Associate Director of Sourcing & Sustainability at NDFS. We had a good discussion with her about the current waste production/management in the food services around campus. She helped us gain a better idea of the food-type challenges that our project will need to address. For example, she explained to us that for a composter, meat-based products may not be included -- and she encouraged us to brainstorm how the food would be separated in the dining halls for composting. Would the dining hall staff in the dish room need to sort the compostable food? Would the students be asked to sort their compostables off their plates before sending their dishes to the dish room? Furthermore, Cheryl told us that another aspect of our design that should be considered would be to design a composter that can break down both food waste and napkins. Our biggest takeaway from our meeting with Cheryl was that Notre Dame Food Services has an active interest in sustainable food waste management and continues to explore options on food waste management.

Tessa (Team B) and Cam (Team A) met with Linda Kurtos and Elizabeth Westfall at the Office of Sustainability. According to their office, there has been a two-year push to implement a food waste solution on campus. It hinges on a client in Plymouth, IN who owns and operates an anaerobic digester at a dairy farm. Last year, he had offered to take Notre Dame’s food waste for use at his facility as long as Notre Dame would handle isolating and transporting the waste. A contractor had been hired to design a waste container separate from recycling and landfill but had failed to meet the requirements of the available loading docks at ND. The Office of Sustainability emphasized that the lack of an effective waste container was the sole obstacle in implementing the partnership between the university’s food program and the dairy operation in Plymouth. If efforts were to be focused on the design and implementation of such a container, groups would have to consider its dimensions in relation to the loading docks at both dining halls as well as the best way to sort, load, and deposit food into and out of the containers.

#meeting #productive #wow #compost #foodwaste #problems #FOOD #Sustainability #boss