The University of Oregon’s waste minimization and diversion practices rank lower than other Oregon universities. In a 2020 report, the university scored just 3.83 points out of 8.00.
The most recent report on the university by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education scores UO’s sustainability planning as 2.50 points out of 4, concluding that sustainability, in the university’s strategic plan, is a “minor theme.”
While Oregon State University and Portland State University dining services have partnered with food waste processors to compost food scraps from students’ meals, UO Dining is lagging behind. Meanwhile, dining workers have been told to throw away uneaten food and to order excess food to make food display cases look “full.”
A lack of post-consumer waste programs in Eugene leaves the university throwing away tons of waste into landfills.
The data shows it, too.
Out of the 3,615 tons of waste generated by UO during its performance year, 1,527 tons were disposed of into landfills or incinerators.
OSU’s 2022 report shows that the university scored 4.42 out of 8 points for waste minimization and diversion. OSU and PSU’s 2022 reports score the same in sustainability planning: 4 out of 4 points – higher than UO.
AASHE states in its scoring criteria that universities that fail to show sustainability planning documentation lose up to four points. UO provided sustainability planning documents for community engagement, but not for research or academics. OSU and PSU provided all necessary documents to AASHE.
OSU and PSU have sent in reports for AASHE every year since 2011. Since 2011, UO has submitted four reports to AASHE, roughly every three years.
Currently, the UO’s sustainability practices are expired through AASHE, but UO sent in its 2023 report during the summer.
UO Dining’s past and present composting processes
UO Dining prepares more than 12,000 meals per day for roughly 4,000 students. Though 170 tons of pre-consumer waste — food scraps from kitchens — are composted annually by the dining venues, waste produced by students — post-consumer waste — is not composted and winds up in landfills.
“The pre-consumer, such as UO dining staff, have much more control of the waste stream, so we can make sure that [food isn’t] contaminated,” said Tom Driscoll, director of housing for dining services at UO.
Currently, there are no commercial processors in Eugene that accept post-consumer waste. Therefore, every scrap left from students is unable to be composted, which is then left going to the trash bin, Driscoll said.
But the composting process used to be different for UO Dining.
In 2013, Driscoll said Rexius, UO’s commercial compost partner, piloted a post-consumer composting program for around five years at UO Dining. According to Steve Mital, director of the University of Oregon’s Sustainability Office, the reason for suspending the program was due to an agreement made by major Oregon composting haulers to keep compostable packaging and serviceware, such as plastic forks and knives, out of compost facilities.
UO Dining hasn’t operated the post-consumer composting program since 2018.
In 2019, UO quickly followed an ordinance by the city of Eugene requiring disposable utensils only to be provided upon request. The same year, UO announced that it would only accept food scraps in compost bins.
These two decisions provided a cleaner flow of post-consumer waste into compostable material: compost bins full of just food scraps, and no “compostable” packaging or plastic items.
But a year later, as COVID-19 and safety protocols halted the use of reusable utensils, UO went back to providing single-use, plastic utensils.
Today, as UO is moving “forward together” from the pandemic, its sustainability practices are moving as well, slowly.
“On the post-consumer side, our interest now is moving towards reusable items as much as possible to eliminate that single-use waste,” Driscoll said in May.
In November, Mital said UO Dining has reinstated reusable utensils, but not drinkware, for the fall term.
How UO composting stacks up to others
The current composting process, described by Driscoll, includes each of UO Dining’s nine kitchens filling compost bins with food scraps throughout the day. Once full at the end of the day, campus facility workers collect the bins, combine the scraps into a large container and ship them to Rexius.
OSU and PSU’s composting practices do involve post-consumer waste programs through their compost hauler, Republic Services. OSU and PSU are able to compost meat, dairy, bones, pre-consumer prep scraps, post-consumer food waste and serviceware, among other items.
UO is allowed to compost pre-consumer prep scraps and “food scraps.”
Republic was one of the nine companies that halted composting “compostable” packaging, but continues to compost post-consumer waste, unlike Rexius.
Republic does not offer services in Eugene, leaving UO without a post-consumer composting option, and its leftover food winding up in landfills.
“The University of Oregon did not initiate this ban on post-consumer composting. The haulers did,” Mital said. “If and when that comes back, I think we would jump back into it.”
Driscoll said in May he was unaware that OSU and PSU were composting post-consumer waste through Republic Services, and that post-consumer waste is an issue for UO.
Compost options in Eugene leave tons of waste piling
There’s more than just packaging and service ware in post-consumer waste. Leftover food is a major component of post-consumer waste.
Elizabeth White, a former student at UO who had worked at the dining halls beginning in the fall of 2020, had witnessed several accounts of waste mismanagement. White said that they were explicitly told that UO Dining orders excess produce and pastries so cases can look full, knowing the excess will go to waste.
“It was shocking but not surprising when I was told that,” she said. “So, so much food is thrown out at the end of each day. We do send some food to Food for Lane County, but it’s an incredibly small amount compared to what is composted/thrown away.”
Evan Weston, a senior at the University of Oregon, had been witnessing the inner workings of UO Dining’s composting, recycling and waste processes for over a year and a half. Weston had worked at Global Scholars Dining Hall and PNW Cafe, a venue inside Unthank Hall, but quit in June for other work opportunities.
“Every dining hall has to throw away all the hotline food at the end of the service [day],” Weston said. “So much food gets thrown away. Every night, I feel so bad having to throw away all of that food.”
Weston described that each night while working at the dining halls, she saw several pans of sauce and macaroni being thrown away, as well as vegetables, curry and chicken. She noted that this process rests not solely on GSH, but on every dining hall on campus.
In a June email to the Daily Emerald, Mital said that UO will be asking its hauler whether they plan to follow Republic’s lead in composting post-consumer waste in the near future.
“We did some internal discussions on that,” Mital said in November, “and we decided to focus our attention on bringing reusables back, as we believe it has a bigger impact.”
Dan Sutton, senior vice president of Rexius, said he hasn’t talked with anyone from UO “about composting food.” But if UO wanted to, he would be the “person they want to talk to about the program.”
“If you’re going to do anything, just do paper only. Or go completely with reusable utensils, paper and plates. Paper will break down eventually. Plastics won’t. That’s kinda where we sit,” Sutton said.
Since January 2022, 45% of landfill waste from UO has been sent to Georgia-Pacific’s “Juno” facility in Toledo. The Juno facility extracts “fiber, metals, and liquids from the waste stream,” according to a 2022 materials report sent to the Emerald by Mital.
But more than half of UO’s landfill waste winds up at Coffin Butte Landfill in Corvallis, including the tons of food waste produced by its dining halls and students.
