Northland College
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Project Clean Plate aims to reduce food waste on Northland’s campus and raise awareness of food waste resulting from the leftover food scraps thrown out by students in the cafeteria. The program is headed by the Northland College Compost Program and Chartwells (Northland’s cafeteria vendor). The program tracks plate waste from students, faculty, and staff in the cafeteria and set goals for reduction. It also provides incentives to reduce food waste in the form of food donations by Chartwells to the local food center. The compost crew keeps separate buckets for kitchen prep waste and cafeteria plate waste. At the end of each day when the compost crew picks up the buckets, they measure the weight of the food in the buckets and keep track of the weights in a log. Measurements exclude special event days when external groups may be visiting the campus. To start, there is a week of “silent weighting,” where the compost crew weighs the plate waste students make every day for a week without notifying the students beforehand in order to set a benchmark. After this silent weighting, they begin our educational side of the program, where they put up signs and table tents in the cafeteria and communicate to students how much food is wasted in the United States, and how much food they throw away every week. During this phase, the compost crew notifies students that they will conduct a weekly measure of food waste in the cafeteria and provide incentives for them to reduce food waste. Table tents in the cafeteria with information about food waste data are used along with posters around campus to promote the initiative. Students, faculty, and staff who eat in the cafeteria were are educated with small signs posted in the food line area to remind them to take only what they will eat.

The students of Northland College are sustainability minded, and were very receptive to a program like this in their cafeteria. The hope is to continue this as an annual campaign. After the silent weighting, we found out that about 480 pounds of food a week, or just under 70 pounds of food a day comes from student’s plate waste. Benchmark weighting for one week at start of campaign: 476.9 lbs Weighting for one week at conclusion of campaign: 447.8 lbs Amount of food saved: 29.1 lbs (6.1% of benchmark)

The Recycling Coordinators hosted a plastic bag drive to collect as many bags as possible from around campus and the community. The bags were properly recycled instead of ending up in the landfill. For engagement, the recycling coordinators tabled roughly 17 hours throughout a week in the student campus center talking with students, faculty, and staff. The coordinators explained the purpose of the drive and brought attention to Northland's plastic bag recycling program. They also used social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to spread the word. The plastic bag drive was also a competition--teams of 1-3 individuals earned points by bringing in as many used plastic bags and chip bags as they could find. The College collected the bags during tabling hours. Teams could also gain points in other ways, such as: (1) signing a 'commit to quit' form, where individuals promised to quit using plastic bags for non-recyclable applications; (2) making a poster about why using reusable bags is better; and (3) other forms of public advertising aimed at reducing the consumption of plastic bags. Prizes were awarded to the winners.

The goal of the plastic bag drive was to raise awareness that plastic bags are recyclable and that they can be recycled on campus. A total of 930 bags were collected: 918 grocery bags and 12 chip bags.

Electronics Waste Recycling Day: In cooperation with a regional vendor, Northland hosts an annual electronics waste collection event for the campus and broader community. Each event has resulted in over a semi trailer worth of material being collected for recycling and reuse. Conserve-a-Thon: Every year Northland run a month-long energy-saving contest between the residence halls. Data is tracked from utility meters to determine the best-performing residence. The results of the contests include: concrete reductions in energy consumption during the competition period, increased awareness of ways to conserve energy, a greater understanding of the benefits of saving energy, and inspiration for students to develop additional programs (such as creating "student consultants" to go to residence hall rooms and conduct energy audits and make recommendations for changes). The winning residence halls receive prizes.