The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday recognized the accomplishments of 13 organizations and businesses participating in EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge.  In Pennsylvania, Ursinus College in Montgomery County was recognized for its efforts.

Ursinus College started composting food scraps from the Wismer Dining Hall in the Fall of 2009.

The Ursinus Environmental Studies faculty and students collaborated with Andy Feick Director of Facilities Services, Ron Wood General Manager of Dining Services, and a local composting site to create a compost program that helps reduce campus waste, support local sustainable business and transform a raw material such as food waste into a renewable resource, compost. 

Food waste is ground up, drained of water, and then sent to a local compost facility - Two Particular Acres family farm.  A more recent development is the expansion of the compost program into Zacks- the student center a la carte dining area.

All leftover food and disposable products from Zacks are compostable, and can be tossed into any of the four compost bins located in Wismer.

Composting efforts at Ursinus are part of a nationwide Food Recovery effort lead by the EPA.

In 2015, more than 800 governments, businesses and organizations participated in EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge. Participants include organizations such as grocers, restaurants, educational institutions and sports and entertainment venues, who together kept more than 690,000 tons of food from being wasted.

These efforts reduced carbon emissions equivalent to taking approximately 86,000 cars off the road for a year and saved businesses up to $35 million in avoided waste disposal fees.

For more information, visit EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge and Sustainable Management of Food webpages.

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[Posted Nov. 22, 2016]

11/28/2016