Did you know many of the cups, straws and food containers you are now using in our dining facilities are biodegradable? When you put these items in compost receptacles, they are combined with kitchen waste and leftover food. This mixture is taken to Cedar Grove (the largest compost facility in the Northwest) where it is converted to nutrient-rich compost. Over the summer of 2007, we expanded our collection sites and compostable disposables lines for the purpose of offering a complet compostable serviceware package to our customers. Our credo is to Strive for Zero Waste through composting. Working with students, Housing and Food Services staff takes pride in being involved in a program that is making a real effort to reduce the amount of waste going to our regional landfills.  | Ever wonder what happens to that item you put in the compost bin? Take a tour of the Cedar Grove Composting site and find out. |
Recycling and Conservation Packaging Food Services is working actively with our purchasers and suppliers to reduce the amount of packaging in our products and containers, and to convert to compostable packaging when possible, to further reduce the amount of waste going to our landfills. Recycling Containers UW Recycle has a well-structured and successful campus-wide program for the identification and ease of collection of recyclables. With color-coded containers to store recycling (blue), composting (brown) and regular trash (gray), our customers can easily identify items and correctly recycle them. Biodiesel Food Services has an agreement to have all of our used cooking oil picked up by a local producer of biodiesel fuel. For the calendar year 2007, Standard Biodiesel picked up 1,255 gallons of used cooking oil from HFS which was converted to clean burning biodiesel fuel sold to the local community. Bring Your Own Mug Anyone who brings their own mug to a café gets drip coffee for $1.25. Espresso drinks are 10 cents off. Herb Garden Food Services has a patio herb and vegetable garden located on the roof of McMahon Hall, one of our residence halls. Our garden is lovingly maintained by University of Washington groundskeepers. Our chefs use the garden to grow herbs and produce that we use to supplement what we purchase from Charlie’s Produce, a local, employee-owned company that supplies us with fruits and vegetables. Environmentally Sustainable Cleaning Ecolab, provider of all food service cleaning products and detergents, supplies HFS with their line of environmentally-friendly products, called Ecologic. We want to ensure that what we use and send down our drains does not impact our streams, lakes and rivers. |