2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Symposium
2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Symposium
Optimizing Campus Food Waste Management for Energy and Nutrient Recovery
Optimizing Campus Food Waste Management for Energy and Nutrient Recovery
PROJECT NUMBER: 29 | AUTHOR: Mridhula Manoj, Civil and Environmental Engineering
MENTOR: Amy Landis, Civil and Environmental Engineering
ABSTRACT
Food waste is a problem in the United States when it shouldn’t be. There are large amounts of food waste being produced that is sent to landfills while at the same time food insecurity is a problem. Therefore, it is important to set up systems to mitigate the effects of food waste and food insecurity. Currently, at the Colorado School of Mines campus, there are potentially large amounts of food waste being sent to landfills. The overall goal of this project is to decide the best way to utilize food waste on campus whether that’s through composting or converting it to energy. Another goal of this project is to determine if there is food available on campus that is good to be donated but due to the lack of awareness around resources like blaster’s basket, the food becomes wasted. An energy audit and a food waste audit were started in order to compare and contrast the different waste management options and their feasibility. A review of different food waste reduction apps was also completed which was done in order to identify if there is a market for an app that is currently in production for the campus. A survey of commonly available food items on campus was started to support the user-specific footprinting functionality of the app. Continued progress on the audits and survey will ensure the goal of optimizing food waste management on campus.
PRESENTATION
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Mridhula is a junior studying civil engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and has an interest in sustainable infrastructure. She has been working with Dr. Landis’s research group since the spring of 2020. She conducted research on optimizing food waste management for energy and nutrient recovery.
Hi Mridhula, I enjoyed your presentation. Your introduction to the food waste problem was concise and excellent. My comment/question is as follows. I realize that you were unable to do the food waste audit and that is a key first step. In your last “Next Steps” slide, perhaps you could have commented on how you might have done the food waste audit in terms of methodology/manpower/etc. This sounds like a very big job. Is it reasonable that one undergraduate could accomplish this working a few hours/week?
Hi Doug,
Thank you for the lovely comments!
As for the food waste audit, as you mentioned I do not think it is reasonable for one person to do it. Unfortunately, the logistics of how to complete the audit is not complete so I could not include it in the presentation.