MONACA, Pa. — The start of a new academic year means the Brodhead Bistro staff is busy feeding hundreds of students, faculty and staff each day.
All of that food prep can lead to a lot of waste, but new sustainability efforts on campus are greatly reducing the amount of waste the Bistro produces.
During the 2024-25 academic year the Bistro began working with Haley Sankey, director of sustainability for auxiliary and business services at Penn State, to reduce waste and recycle the waste that is produced.
“(Sustainability) was originally brought up in a campus leadership meeting, and we jumped on board,” said Kelly Marcello, Penn State Beaver manager of housing and food services.
Housing and Food Services works with Carbon Compost in Pittsburgh. Carbon Compost brings empty, 10-gallon composting buckets to the campus every Friday, and they collect the full buckets that contain pre-consumer, organic waste such as pepper cores, coffee grounds, vegetable peels, eggshells and meat trimmings, Marcello said.
“The staff really embraced it (the composting) and followed the rules,” Marcello said. “They did amazing. To be honest, we really knocked it out of the park.”
Between Jan. 24 and May 16 of this year, the Bistro composted a total of 3,712 pounds of food waste, averaging 232 pounds per week, said Neil LaGreca, Penn State Beaver director of housing and food services. He estimates there was less than 10 pounds of non-compostable material left behind.
Food composting isn’t the only sustainability effort taking place on campus.
LaGreca said there is general recycling, reusable to-go containers for food, napkins made from 100 percent post-recycled consumer content, and the Bistro collects the used fryer oil and gives it to a company that cleans it for re-use. Also, 20 percent of the food in the Bistro is locally sourced, and leftover food has been donated to a local non-profit.
LaGreca said they are continuing to explore new efforts and compostable products that can be added in the future, including sourcing more food from the campus high tunnel.
“Sustainability in housing and food service isn't just about reducing waste, it's about serving a better future,” LaGreca said. “We're proud of the progress we've made, and I'm energized to keep pushing forward this academic year.”