CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — To celebrate Earth Day, students with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's Islander Green Team conducted a food waste audit on Monday morning. The group wanted to see exactly how much food is wasted on campus.
The Islander Green Team said their main goal for the food waste audit was to encourage other students to join in on being more eco-conscious and gain knowledge on the amount of food that's thrown away.
Through the food waste audit, the group will also be able to see how much of the food could possibly be re-used for environmental sustainability.
“We’re basically polling our students to see what is generally wasted," Taylor Thorpe, President of the Islander Green Team said. "And what maybe we could change out in the dining hall to reduce our food waste.”
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. throws away more than 60 million tons of food every year.
“We waste a lot of food here," Thorpe said. "It is very unfortunate and we’re up to about 16 pounds of food waste that we can’t reuse in less than an hour. So our whole goal with this is to bring awareness and push our Islander students to only take what you know you’re going to eat.”
The group separated and weighed compostable and non-compostable items in a bucket. Food that can be recycled will be transformed into re-usable soil for the university’s garden. After the data is collected, Thorpe and her Green Team will compile their results to determine what changes can be made on campus.
"We’re basically going to try to see if there is a per-person waste," Thorpe said. "We made a little survey, so we can compare what’s being wasted to what isn't so wasted.”
The Islander Green Team said they hope to educate more people on how they can reduce waste and save the planet.
“We just want to bring some personal awareness to your everyday consumption habit," Thorpe said. "Of course, each person contributes a little bit but when we come together, it’s a big impact.”
The Islander Green Team said they will present the results of the survey and food waste audit later this week on their Instagram page.
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