Sustainability Analysis of Smith Dining: Grab ‘N’ Go vs. Non Grab ‘N’ Go Houses

Food and food related packaging is rising in the United States. Colleges and Universities are not immune to this increase and because of their visibility, these institutions have the potential to serve as role models for waste prevention. The aim of this study was to see which type of residential dining halls produced the most amount of food and food related waste: Non-Grab ‘N’ Go houses or Grab ‘N’ Go houses. Over a two week period, my partner and I went to four dining halls (two Non-Grab ‘N’ Go and two Grab ‘N’ Go) three times and gathered data on: 1) the number of students who ate each at each of the four dining halls, 2) the number of 2.5 gallon “slop” buckets used for each meal and 3) the number of 60 gallon trash barrels used at the end of the day, including the 2000 pound dumpsters. The results show that Grab ‘N’ Go houses far exceed the amount of food and food related packaging waste produced, with Chapin at 9.37 lbs of waste produced per capita per day. We recommend that Smith College implement the recommendations that we listed at the end of the report. They include for the college: 1) to replace the bottled water and cups at Grab ‘N’ Go locations to Nalgene bottles that should be given out at the beginning of the school year, 2) replace the individual containers of food to a recyclable tray, 3) reinstall composting 4) put recycling containers near Grab ‘N’ Go containers and 5) educate the campus about the hazards of food waste. We hope that with these recommendations, Smith College will move toward a more sustainable campus, thus, proving to be a role model for the community at large.