- This event has passed.
Weigh the Waste Campaign
October 22, 2019 @ 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
Where: Dobbs Common Table (in the Emory Student Center)
What: One week of weighing all the waste produced during lunch time at the DCT!
Why: There are many reasons for us to be more aware of how much food we throw away:
- When food is thrown away, all the energy it took to produce, transport, package, and prepare that food also ends up wasted.
- Food rotting in landfills emits methane, which is a greenhouse gas 20 times more environmentally detrimental than carbon dioxide. Food composted at Emory is turned into soils but would have been best used to feed people.
- While 40% of all food produced in this country goes to waste, much of which is wasted by consumers, one in six Americans is food insecure (meaning they don’t know where their next meal is coming from).
- The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that on average, diners leave 17 percent of their meals uneaten.
Our Weigh the Waste campaign will bring awareness to these astounding statistics, and hopefully get people to think twice before throwing away food.
Volunteer Sign-Up:
Volunteers are needed to work 1-hour shifts from 11am-2pm, Monday-Friday. Volunteers will help students to sort the waste into appropriate containers (edible solid waste, liquid waste, non-edible waste). When the containers are full, volunteers will weigh and empty them.
Help us to make this event a success! If you would like to sign up for a volunteer shift, CLICK HERE to view the Volunteer Sign-Up Form.