Abstract
School cafeterias are a significant source of food waste and represent an ideal opportunity for diverting food waste from landfills. In this study, cafeteria waste audits were conducted at three Florida schools. Food waste comprised the largest fraction of school cafeteria waste streams, ranging from 47% to 58%, followed by milk, paper products (tissue, milk cartons, pasteboard, paper plates, and cardboard), and plastics (plastic wrap, packaging, and utensils). Metal and glass comprised the smallest fraction of the waste stream. Average total waste generation ranged from 50.5 to 137.6 g·student−1·day−1. The mean generation rates for food waste ranged from 24.7 to 64.9 g·student−1·day−1. The overall average for cafeteria waste generation among all three schools was 102.3 g·student−1·day−1, with food waste alone contributing 52.2 g·student−1·day−1. There are two primary approaches to diverting school food waste from landfills: reduction and recycling. Food waste can be reduced through educating students and staff in order to change behaviors that cause food waste. Food waste can be collected and recycled through composting or anaerobic digestion in order to generate beneficial end products, including soil amendments and bioenergy. Over 75% of the cafeteria waste measured in this study could be recycled in this manner.
Highlights
Food waste and its consequent environmental, societal, and economic impacts are attracting increasing attention across the globe [1]
The aim of this study was to measure the total cafeteria waste and the food waste from three local schools by conducting waste audits on the waste stream generated from their school cafeterias
Since lunches were selected by students from a daily order menu provided by off-campus restaurants, the food would likely be more palatable to the students than school-provided meals, and there may have been less uneaten food wasted at School C than at School A or B
Summary
Food waste and its consequent environmental, societal, and economic impacts are attracting increasing attention across the globe [1]. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that approximately one-third of global food production is lost or wasted [2]. Global efforts, such as the Food Loss and Waste Protocol, are currently underway to help identify, quantify, and reduce food waste [3]. Large quantities of preventable food waste are generated further down the food production chain at the post-retail, consumption level. While food waste from households represents a significant source of consumption-level food waste [4], the institutional food service sector (schools, prisons, hospitals) is a major source of food waste in developed countries [5].
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