Food Waste at Cornell University

On a large campus like Cornell, food waste is a major issue. While in some dining halls, waste food is used for composting, in others, waste food and paper containers are thrown away together as landfills. The Cornell office of sustainability and Cornell Dining have numerous initiatives to address the issue of food waste through composting, but most students are unaware of the results or the amount of food wasted.

In order to raise awareness and address the issue of food wasted, we propose to create a data-driven website that visualizes the amount of food wasted on campus, as well as show how much of the wasted food is being used for compost. Ultimately, we want to use the data to not only track food waste, but find ways to improve the food waste management system at Cornell.