The Marketplace has invested in a futuristic system that will track and hopefully decrease food waste at Elizabethtown College. Around one-third of all food in the world goes to waste, which is an unfortunate–and preventable–part of modern society. The question is, what can we do to lower this number, at least in our own community?
Enter KITRO. Based in Switzerland, KITRO is a company that is committed to leading companies and schools all over the world to track how much food they are wasting. The company boasts that its customers can reduce up to 60% of food waste. These numbers typically hover around 30% within the first six months of use. Many long-term customers even receive a positive return on their investment, as disposing large quantities of food is needlessly expensive.
KITRO’s system allows each student to take part in slashing food waste in the Marketplace. When you are finished eating, separate your leftover food from your napkins. Empty the food into KITRO and throw the paper waste into the bin next to it. Leave your dishes and utensils on the tray and place it on the conveyor belt as you normally would. It’s that easy.
Disposing your food waste into KITRO is not mandatory, but it is very simple. It will also help the Marketplace staff achieve the most reliable results so that the AI can suggest any relevant changes to the menu. They hope that these changes will lead to less food waste. As dramatic as it may sound, a few seconds of your time will help make Etown–and the world–a better place.
In fact, Etown is the first college in the United States to invest in this technology.
Etown has become a pioneer in reducing food waste. Hopefully, other schools will follow the Marketplace’s positive example, as some 22 million pounds of food are wasted by colleges across the nation, according to Stone Pier Press.
Some students are already using this technology and find it to be a worthwhile investment. “Food waste is a decently sized issue to worry about,” one student mentioned. “Personally, I would take some time to dump food into the bin. I don’t know if I would expect everyone to, though.” It may be unreasonable to expect every Etown student to take the time to use KITRO, but use will hopefully increase with more advertisement of the process.
Another student, Bella ‘27, is skeptical about how effective KITRO will be for preventing future food waste: “Just because people throw food away doesn’t mean they don’t like it; maybe they just didn’t feel like eating it all.” According to some students, making changes to the menu is a somewhat drastic measure to take when there are multiple reasons for students to toss food.
A student named Elise ‘27 agrees with her: “I think it’s odd because people don’t usually get food they don’t like,” she said. “The only things they throw away are the things they couldn’t eat because they were either too full or accidentally took too much.”
Dining Services did not respond to a request for a comment.
KITRO has only been at Etown for a few days, however, and the technology may prove itself useful. In about a week, the system will have received the data it needs to make suggestions on how to change the menu.
