With the topical polar vortex and rapid weather changes, the current state of the environment and our planet have been at the forefront of recent conversation.

More specifically, students, faculty and staff at Elizabethtown College have been speculating efficient ways to reduce their carbon footprints. One of the most prominent ways to decrease their carbon footprints remains reducing food waste.

According to the “Food waste of selected countries worldwide in 2017” Statista chart, the United States produced an average of 90.67 billion kilograms of food waste per year.

In another Statista chart, “Amount of food waste in the United States in 2017, by source,” the residential sector of the United States produced roughly 39.6 million wet tons of food waste, with the food waste of the commercial, institutional and industrial categories falling significantly behind that of the residential sector.

As a part of this institutional sector, the College is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and its volume of food waste primarily through the Marketplace, where the foods and beverages that students, faculty, staff and guest diners leave behind are all collected in an industrial food pulper.

According to the Director of Dining Services Eric Turzai, the food pulper that is in current use in the Marketplace has been in use for 10 years and continues to collect most of the College’s organic waste to become a repurposed form of energy.

“It’s a full-cycle service,” Turzai said. “From grinding and pulping the waste at the College to sending it to a local milking farm in Lancaster, we hope to generate electricity freely and be able to reduce our carbon footprint by putting our waste to good use.”

The food pulping process begins with the collection of pre and post-consumer organic waste. This waste then makes its way into a pulper grinding mechanism, in which the water is extracted from the organic waste and recycled for further recycling.

This waste, which averages to roughly 2,400 pounds of organic waste and approximately 2,000 gallons of liquid per week, is then transported to Brubaker Farms in Lancaster to be harvest into electricity.

The remaining organic waste is then used to make high-quality bedding for the cattle at Brubaker Farms, where they eat the bedding and then produce a higher quality of milk.

Additionally, the College also puts some of its waste to use right on-campus, through a one-acre garden located along the path to the Bowers Writers House that harvests a variety of fruits and vegetables that are incorporated into the Marketplace and Jay’s Nest menus.

The garden additionally houses five beehives that help pollinate the campus garden as well as produce honey for the College.

“It’s a win/win situation for the College,” Turzai said. “It’s hard to monitor food waste and food consumption in an all-you-care-to-eat facility like the Marketplace. However, we are very eco-friendly, from our equipment to our dish machine, and we discard very little water and very little waste.”

Naturally, however, the Marketplace is not the only place that students, faculty and staff can contribute to reducing their carbon footprints on-campus. Senior engineering major Margo Donlin reduces her carbon footprint by driving as little as possible and preparing her meals ahead of time.

“I plan my meals as much as I can, so I know what and how much food to buy at the grocery store,” Donlin said. “This helps me minimize food wasted because I forgot I had it or I didn’t use all of it before it went bad. Some things are hard to save since they come in large packages, like hummus or guacamole, but I have learned that you can freeze both and let them thaw when you need to use them.”

For Turzai, further reducing the College’s carbon footprint starts with awareness.

“People becoming aware of what they do has a significant impact,” Turzai said. “Even the little things like recycling or using a refillable water bottle can make a difference.”

“I am by no means the eco-friendliest, but I try to do my best when I can,” Donlin said. “I always have a reusable water bottle with me, so I don’t use disposable plastic water bottles, and I use reusable containers when I pack my lunch. Incorporating simple things like reusable silverware, containers and water bottles into your daily routine can truly reduce the impact we have on our planet.”

For more information on the food pulper or on the College’s sustainability practices, please visit https://www.etown.edu/about/sustainability/index.aspx.