The Energy Contest Cover Page Rutgers New Brunswick Undergraduate Students Sponsored by The Rutgers Energy Institute Proposal Title: A Multi-Faceted Approach to Minimize Waste from Rutgers Dining Services

200 word (maximum) summary of the proposal or video: Food-related waste is a massive problem in the United States, accounting for $40 billion lost from commercial service operations alone. Additionally, environmental implications extend far upstream and downstream as well. Despite recent initiatives to reduce student produced food waste, Rutgers dining services is still a major contributor to this problem. This proposal therefore takes a multi-pronged waste reduction approach to minimize Rutgers' dining services footprint in this area. In part I, it is shown that installing pre-consumer food waste tracking technology in kitchens can result in over 438,000 pounds of food saved each year. This corresponds to $333,216 in savings, or 3.74 million kilowatt-hours and 5.1 million pounds of CO 2 reduced. In part II, it is shown that a small change in take-out packaging practices can produce a substantial change in the environment to save 350,000 pounds of CO 2 emissions and 80,000 kilowatt-hours of energy. For a mere $230, a combined 3.6 million units of Rutgers' styrofoam cups and containers and plastic bags is saved from landfills each year. In total, the two parts together combine for a total annual savings of $332,986, 5.45 million pounds of CO 2 emissions, and 3.82 million kilowatt-hours of energy.