Forty-seven per cent of Canada’s food waste is caused by individuals rather than restaurants and other food service providers, according to a report from Value Chain Management International. While it would be difficult to encourage reducing the amount of wasted food, a more sustainable solution to this rising issue is composting.
Households across Canada have the option to reduce their landfill contribution by disposing any food waste, paper towels, and other biodegradable products in green bins that are collected by the city and used for composting.
But at Carleton, students have limited options to sustainably discard their food waste.
While the University of Ottawa has green bins, recycling, and liquid disposal sections near most garbage cans, Carleton does not give students the same easily-accessible opportunity to compost their food.
Currently, the Fresh Food Company collects organics for composting in the main dining and preparation areas. But the food waste students contribute by scraping leftovers off their plates into garbage bins is not sustainable without the use of biodegradable garbage bags, and without a separate bin for non-organic waste.
In order to fully divert all food waste from the landfill and truly create an eco-friendly, sustainable campus—not to mention meeting facilities management and planning’s goals for 60 per cent of all waste on campus to be recycled or composted—Carleton must install green bins across campus.
