A food waste monitoring device has been installed in the Buttery in an effort to encourage the separation of food waste from general waste and reduce costs.
It is hoped that the device will encourage customers to separate their rubbish properly.
The different bins are already labelled, but Trinity’s Head of Catering Moira O’Brien told The University Times in an email that waste being put into the wrong bin is an “issue every day”.
“We hope that this pilot will focus people’s attention on what they throw away and its potential environmental impact”, she said.
The waste monitoring device was installed above a set of bins in the Buttery by Positive Carbon, a startup founded by Trinity alumni Aisling and Mark Kirwan. It uses lasers to calculate the weight and volume of the food being disposed of and a camera photographs the food and uses artificial intelligence to label it.
According to Michele Hallahan, the sustainability advisor to the Office of the Provost, food waste in College is currently significantly estimated. The current estimate of four per cent only accounts for food correctly disposed of into brown bins.
“It is [currently] impossible to measure the food that is being misdirected into black bins and recycling bins,” Hallahan said in an email to this newspaper.
She said that many people confuse the term “recyclable” with “compostable”, resulting in people throwing compostable or food waste into the recycling bin or vice versa. The resulting recyclable waste is then typically incinerated along with unrecyclables.
The monetary value of food waste is also recorded and the data can be used to make adjustments to menu design and portion size in order to reduce costs and waste.
“We believe everyone has a role to play in reducing food waste. From individuals to institutions to industry to government, it’s an issue that is prominent in every sector and needs action”, Aisling Kirwan told The University Times in an email.
“The biggest obstacle to reducing food waste is the visibility around it. It’s difficult to say you’re going to reduce food waste if you don’t know what’s being wasted and the best way to tackle it”, she added.
The device in the Buttery has been installed on a pilot basis until Christmas after which point Trinity Catering will decide whether it will continue and expand to other areas.
Other efforts to reduce food waste in Trinity include a “train the trainer” programme being developed by Hallahan in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union Environmental Officer Samantha Foley and JCR Secretary Sanjana Pradheep.
This will involve JCR environmental committee members being trained to teach Trinity Hall residents how to correctly separate waste. Hallahan also runs a training programme for on-campus residents which includes a section on reducing food waste and separating it for composting.
