I&R hosts zero waste outdoor picnic
Our recent Staff Appreciation event resulted in a 93% diversion rate thanks to the enthusiastic support from I&R employees and event planners. By using reusable dishes and silverware and scraping plates into a 鈥渇ood-scraps-only鈥 bucket, we achieved zero waste. An event, household or operation is considered 鈥渮ero waste鈥 when 90% or more of its discards are diverted from the landfill.
As you may be aware, changes in acceptable compost feedstock made items like 鈥渃ompostable鈥 plates, napkins and service-ware no longer acceptable. These rule changes made it nearly impossible to host zero waste events on campus for the last couple of years, so this really is a milestone accomplishment for campus. Thanks to all who made this possible!
2024 I&R zero waste picnic, by the numbers
We had 7.9 pounds of trash (almost exclusively paper napkins), which is going to the landfill.
We had:
- 31 pounds of aluminum
- 21 pounds of cardboard/fiberboard
- 9.6 pounds of recyclable stretchy plastic film
- 48.3 pounds of food scraps
All of which will be diverted from the landfill. Using the standard diversion rate formula: Diverted/(Diverted+Landfill)= 109.9/(109.9+7.9)=.933= 93.3% diversion rate.
Anything 90% or greater is considered Zero Waste, so we absolutely, bona fide, crushed it. Keeping almost 50 pounds of food scraps out the landfill alone is extremely impressive! And there was absolutely no contamination in the food-scrap bin, being monitored as it was.