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Food Recovery Resources for Service Providers
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This page provides resources for service providers like Universities and Colleges, Sporting and Entertainment Venues, and Grocers and Supermarkets. These service providers can reduce the amount of food sent to landfills by following the Food Recovery Hierarchy. Putting Surplus Food to Good Use: A How-to Guide for Food Service Providers (PDF) (2 pp, 214K) provides resources and examples of how to divert wasted food to a more productive use through these activities (from most preferable to least preferable):
- Source Reduction/Prevention
- Feeding People
- Feeding Animals
- Industrial Uses
- Composting
- Anaerobic Digestion
The Food Recovery Challenge can assist service providers in reducing food waste through these activities.
Want to know how much money implementing a food recovery program could save you? Use the Food Waste Management Cost Calculator to determine the cost competitiveness of recovering food rather than just throwing it in the landfill.
Universities and Colleges Success Stories
More Resources for
Universities and Colleges
- Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)
- College and University Recycling Coalition (CURC)
- Find-A-Composter
- Food Bank Locator by Feeding America
- Food Recovery Challenge
- Food Waste Management Cost Calculator
- GameDay Challenge
- LeanPath University Food Waste Prevention Case Studies
- National Association of College and University Food Services
- RecycleMania
Universities and colleges generate wasted food from many sources: dining commons, on-campus restaurants, residence halls, sporting venues, and university events. By reducing food sent to landfills or incinerators, schools can save money, reduce their environmental impact, and inform students about the importance of not wasting food.
Source Reduction/Prevention
- Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts reduces the amount of food sent to landfills, not only through composting, and food donation, but also through food waste prevention. Harvard employs systems to prevent food waste in their kitchens, dining halls, and at events. This includes ordering food that students prefer to eat, hosting a “Clean Plate Club,” implementing trayless dining, and having caterers box up extra food from events so that it can be taken to go. Learn more (PDF) (13 pp, 343K).
Feeding People
- Rock and Wrap It Up! (RWU) partners with dozens of universities and colleges to collect wholesome, edible food and donate
it to those in need. RWU arranges the collection and donation of leftover food and other basic necessities from concerts, sporting
events, corporate meetings, and universities Learn more
(PDF) (2 pp, 514K).
Feeding Animals
- New Jersey’s Rutgers University, the third largest student dining operation in the country, is a leader in food scraps diversion. To reduce the amount of food waste generated at Rutgers, the dining halls partnered with a local farm, Pinter Farms, who collects on average more than a ton of food scraps per day from Rutgers’ four main dining halls and feeds it to its hogs and cattle. Diverting food scraps to Pinter Farms cost Rutgers half the price of send the material to landfill. View this fact sheet (PDF) (2 pp., 726K)
Composting
- Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont initiated a food waste composting program in 1993. Middlebury College used to
haul the food scraps offsite, but now have a site on campus where they compost 90 percent of the food waste generated or 370
tons in 2011. In 2011, Middlebury saved over $100 thousand in landfill fees by recycling and composting. Learn more.
- The University of Texas (UT) Arlington composts their food scraps onsite and uses the soil amendment at their organic community
garden. In 2011, over 60 thousand pounds of food and landscape materials were composted and turned into a valuable soil amendment. Learn more.
Anaerobic Digestion
- Purdue University turns food waste into renewable energy by partnering with the City of West Lafayette to send food waste to the local wastewater treatment plant. At the wastewater treatment plant, the food is added to the anaerobic digester, where it is processed by microbes to generate biogas, a source of renewable energy, and a solid residual that can be used as a soil amendment. Learn more (PDF). (17 pp., 3.3MB)
- The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh started turning organic materials into renewable energy in fall 2011 with a dry fermentation anaerobic digester. The first of its kind in the nation, this facility uses agricultural plant waste, City of Oshkosh yard waste, and campus-generated food waste to produce biogas. The digester produces enough energy to power up to 10 percent of the 13,500-student institution.
Sporting and Entertainment Venues Success Stories
More Resources for Sporting and Entertainment Venues
- Creating Winning Recycling Programs at Sporting Events (webinar)
- Fact Sheet for Managing Food Materials (5 pp, 205.17 K)
- Find-A-Composter
- Food Bank Locator by Feeding America
- Food Recovery Challenge
- Food Scraps Management for Stadiums and Special Events (CalRecycle)
- Food Waste Management Cost Calculator
- Recycle on the Go Resource Guide for Venues
- Special Events Recycling & Composting (Northeast Recycling Council)
- Working with Concessionaires and Vendors Resource Guide
Sporting and entertainment venues attract millions of people each year for sports games, concerts, and other events. Concessions at these events generate a lot of food waste, more than one pound per person estimates Northeast Recycling Council. This food waste includes preparation-waste or leftover/unsold food from vendors, as well as plate scraps from attendees. By reducing food sent to landfills or incinerators at these events, venues can save money, reduce their environmental impact, help those in need. They can also teach patrons about the importance of reducing their food waste.
Source Reduction
- Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio implemented a successful food scrap recovery program in conjunction with other nearby venues such as Browns Stadium, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, and Progressive Field. By tracking their kitchen waste daily, they managed to reduce their monthly food composted from an average of 3.5 tons down to an average of 1.5 tons. Quicken Loans Arena also composted more than 30 tons of food 2011.
Feeding People
- Rock and Wrap It Up! (RWU) program is a national anti-poverty program that arranges the collection and local donation of leftover food and other basic necessities from rock concerts, sporting events, hotels, corporate meetings, political rallies, and school cafeterias. Among those organizations that have worked with RWU are the New York Giants, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the Hyatt Grand Hotel in New York City. All 30 NHL teams partner with RWU and several venues that are home to NHL teams are now a part of the Food Recovery Challenge. Last year, the NHL, in conjunction with Rock and Wrap it Up!, diverted over 100 tons of food from landfills to the needy, resulting in 160,000 meals serviced and reducing the equivalent of 79 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the environment. Learn More (PDF) (2 pp, 514K).
Composting
- Petco Park, home to the San Diego Padres, implemented a food composting program in 2005 helping the venue to save money on its trash disposal bills. In 2011, Petco Park diverted 164 tons from landfill, saving $75 thousand since 2005. Learn more (PDF) (22 pp, 2.1MB)
Grocery Store and Supermarket Success Stories
More Resources for Grocers and Supermarkets
- Connecticut Food Association Sustainability Guidelines (PDF) (18 pp 620K)
- Fact Sheet for Managing Food Materials (5 pp 205K)
- Find-A-Composter
- Food Bank Locator by Feeding America
- Food Recovery Challenge
- Food Waste Management Cost Calculator
- Supermarket Recycling Resources (by Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Protection)
Source Reduction/Prevention
- Hannaford Supermarkets is a full service grocer with 179 stores in the New England region. As a part of their commitment to sustainability and providing the best food to their customers, they implemented food waste prevention strategies to reduce the amount of surplus food generated. Strategies include fresh truck deliveries every day instead of forecasting out orders and a computer-assisted ordering system to order appropriately based on inventory and sales predictions. Learn more (PDF) (28 pp, 1.7MB).
Feeding People
- SUPERVALU, Inc., operates several retail banners across the United States including Albertsons and Shop 'n Save. In 2010, they donated more than 61 million pounds of wholesome, edible food to those in need, which is the equivalent to around 48 million meals. In addition to being a great moral booster for store employees, it also saved them $2.6 million. Learn more (PDF) (12 pp, 307K).
Composting
- New Seasons Markets operates 12 stores in the Pacific Northwest and strives to support the local economy and sustainable agriculture. Since 2006, New Seasons Market has increased diversion of organic materials, including food waste to compost by 109 percent. Since 2011, they have diverted more than 2,400 tons of food from landfills and saved almost $27 thousand in waste expenses. Learn more (PDF) (26 pp, 1.1MB).
Supermarket Composting Handbook & Resources
You will need Microsoft Word and Excel to view and edit these templates. Download the free Word Viewer and Excel Viewer.
The Supermarket Composting Handbook (PDF) (78 pp, 1.4 MB) was created for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to the handbook, below are templates, sample language, and other resources that you can adapt to fit your needs.
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