Bradley University is encouraging responsible eating at their two buffet style cafeterias. The Waste Tree program kicked off today with a visual reminder of the amount of uneaten food wasted each day.
Unconsumed portions are weighed and recorded after each meal. A tree-shaped poster on display in the residence halls allows the students to see changes in weekly food waste.
Gale Hanson is the Dining services director. She says the current food waste affects the business’s bottom line and ends up costing consumers more money in the long run.
“Right now we're running about nine hundred to a thousand pounds a week in waste. And so, if we can get down to three hundred pounds a week in waste that would be significant for us.”
Last year’s Earth Day food waste awareness campaign reduced cafeteria waste by nearly two hundred pounds a day in two weeks.