Ohio State honored for food waste initiatives

The Ohio State University has been named Food Waste Reduction winner of the 2023 Campus Race to Zero Waste Case Study competition organized by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).  

During the initial Campus Race to Zero Waste competition earlier this year, more than 200 campuses competed to reduce waste through donating, composting and recycling more than 29.4 million pounds of waste. Following the annual competition, the program calls for best practice case studies from campuses in the U.S. and Canada to showcase programs and strategies in waste minimization, food waste reduction and educational awareness.  

Through a campuswide composting case study focused on facilitating peer-to-peer engagement, collaborative learning opportunities and reducing recidivism, OSU was named Food Waste Reduction winner. 

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OSU says it set out to “meaningfully impact the sustainable management of food waste and organics” during the 2022-2023 school year. Organics diversion systems existed around campus, but a waste characterization study found that organics represented approximately 27 percent of the university’s landfill stream. 

According to the case study, OSU expanded compost collection services from 39 to 120 locations in under a year. During this time, the university also expanded a pilot initiative to provide all faculty, staff and students living off-campus with free access to composting using a drop-off program.  

A peer-to-peer education program was launched to meet campuswide compost education needs. OSU reports nearly 500 students attended formal volunteer training sessions, during which volunteers helped with tabling, bin guarding and other activities which resulted in collecting an additional 600 tons of compost. The program was marketed through an academic collaboration with a design class that developed movable compost engagement carts.  

To create a processing outlet for the bolstered organics stream, OSU collaborated with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) to reconstruct a voluntary reentry success program. According to the case study, none of the individuals who participated in the zero waste job program have returned to ODRC, and all individuals who stayed connected to their ODRC supervisor post-release have reported that they are employed.  

Of the other winning schools, Valparaiso University was named Zero Waste winner; Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, was named Waste Diversion winner, and Towson University was named Education and Awareness winner.