Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community

Food Services Expands Its Sustainability Practices, One Plastic Straw at a Time

Sunday, September 16, 2018, By Greta Bush
Share
diningFood ServicesRecyclingsustainability

There’s something missing this fall from all five campus dining centers. Don’t worry: the chicken tenders are still there. But plastic straws are gone.

plastic straws littered on gravel

Fewer plastic straws in use mean fewer plastic straws discarded.

The plastic straw ban sweeping the nation has come to Syracuse University. SU Food Services opted to eliminate plastic straws from all five of its residential dining centers (Brockway, Ernie Davis, Graham, Sadler and Shaw). Why? Mark Tewksbury, director of residential dining and Dome operations, notes: “It’s something easy to do that makes a big impact on the environment, so we decided it was the right decision.”

Paper straws are a sustainable alternative to plastic and will be available soon in all dining centers. Removing plastic straws in the dining centers may be trendy, but sustainability has long been incorporated into the department’s routine.

Food Services composts its pre- and post-consumer waste with the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency OCRRA). Since the program’s inception in 2010, Food Services has composted nearly 3,900 tons of pre- and post-consumer waste. It’s a practice in which students can participate by sorting their leftover food scraps at the recycling station in each dining center. This, along with fruit and vegetable matter discarded during the food preparation process, is sent to OCRRA to be composted. Removing plastic straws from the dining centers will help make composting easier, as they are difficult to filter out of compostable waste when accidentally tossed into the composting bins.

In addition to the composting program, Food Services takes a number of steps to reduce waste:

  • provides reusable water bottles to all first-year students to deter use of disposable cups: students can use the water bottle to take a drink to-go from all dining centers or receive 20 percent off their fountain beverage from a University café or food court.
  • implemented reusable to-go containers in all five dining centers in 2009; in the 2017-18 academic year alone, students reused nearly 50,000 containers;
  • incorporates energy- and water-saving equipment with each dining center renovation;
  • buys products in bulk, where possible, to reduce material waste;
  • sources locally produced products, whenever possible, from nearby vendors such as Upstate Farms, Paul deLima, Hofmann Sausage Co. and Byrne Dairy;
  • donates leftover food from events to the Syracuse Rescue Mission;
  • and partners with Red’s Best, a seafood wholesaler in the Northeast that guarantees the fish caught will be purchased; this balances the supply-and-demand gap that typically drives fishermen to throw out fish that aren’t in high demand; Food Services’ sous chef Adam Harvey has created a flexible list of recipes tailored for the variety of fish purchased from Red’s Best.

SU and SUNY-ESF students pitch in, too, by partnering with Food Services to reduce waste. The Food Recovery Network is a student-run organization where students volunteer to collect unused food from all five of SU’s dining centers, Schine Dining and the Trailhead Café at SUNY-ESF. This food is safely packaged and delivered to local agencies in the greater Syracuse community that serve populations in need. Students make the rounds five days a week, up to four times per day. More than 70,000 pounds of food have been redistributed since the program’s inception in 2014.

To learn more about Food Services’ efforts to reduce waste and increase its sustainability practices, check out this video or visit foodservices.syr.edu.

  • Author

Greta Bush

  • Recent
  • Activities for the Weekend of March 4-7: Get Involved, Stay Safe, Have Fun!
    Thursday, March 4, 2021, By News Staff
  • Message From Chancellor Kent Syverud
    Thursday, March 4, 2021, By News Staff
  • Final Report of the Board Special Committee on University Climate, Diversity and Inclusion
    Thursday, March 4, 2021, By News Staff
  • Stadium to Reopen to Fans Saturday, March 6
    Thursday, March 4, 2021, By News Staff
  • University’s Service of Commemoration to Be Held Virtually on March 16
    Thursday, March 4, 2021, By News Staff

More In Campus & Community

Activities for the Weekend of March 4-7: Get Involved, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Dear Students and Families: Welcome to the first weekend of March! It’s hard to believe we’ve already been on campus for a full month. I hope that despite the unusual nature of this semester, you are finding ways to enjoy…

Message From Chancellor Kent Syverud

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff: Today you received a message from University Trustees Richard Alexander and Jeffrey Scruggs, co-leads of the Board of Trustees Special Committee on University Climate, Diversity and Inclusion. The committee has completed its comprehensive review and…

Final Report of the Board Special Committee on University Climate, Diversity and Inclusion

Dear Members of the Syracuse University Community: We are writing today to share the final report of the Board of Trustees Special Committee on University Climate, Diversity and Inclusion. This committee was convened in December 2019 with the goal of…

Stadium to Reopen to Fans Saturday, March 6

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff: There are very few things more uniquely Orange than attending an event at our iconic stadium. This is an experience many of us have been missing throughout the pandemic. For that reason, we are pleased…

University’s Service of Commemoration to Be Held Virtually on March 16

Syracuse University will hold its fourth Service of Commemoration—honoring students, faculty, staff, retirees and trustees of Syracuse University and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) who passed during the period of Jan. 1, 2019, to the present—with…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.