Your Leftovers Are Driving to Vancouver – The Reality of Food Waste at Appleby

If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions. Appleby generates 400-650kg of food waste per month from lunch alone, and that number has surpassed 1000 in the past! The equivalent carbon emissions of that quantity of food waste are the same as driving from Toronto to Vancouver! As a school that has done exceptionally well in various fields of sustainability, why not improve on food waste?

Food waste is one of the leading contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for approximately 8 – 10% of emissions. Decomposing food in landfills releases methane gas, the same gas released from melting icebergs and cattle farms, which is far more potent than CO2 when it comes to raising global temperatures. Whether the ethical argument resonates with you or not, the physical consequences of food waste affect every single one of us.

Two Appleby students cared about food waste once. The student-led non-profit organization WasteZero, cofounded by Dyanne Jiang and Myra Datta, has made significant contributions to this issue. WasteZero purchased a Leanpath 360 scale and utilized it to measure the monthly food waste generated from lunch. Last year, the ownership of the NGO was transferred to Zachary Xue and Rythm, who now leads the program under a new name - WasteZero + . Under this new direction, WasteZero + has expanded its mission to changing the culture and mindset around food waste at Appleby, because lasting change starts with how people think, not just what they do.

Continuous effort from the Appleby community is absolutely necessary to solve this problem. Fortunately, there are many small actions you can take to make Appleby an eco-friendlier community:

• Be mindful of how much you can eat. It is simple, but effective.
• Ask for smaller portion sizes, the Sodexo Staff is super friendly!
• If you are unsure whether you like the food, don't take too much. You can always grab seconds.
• Please put the brown tissues into the tissues bin, DO NOT throw them into the compost bin as they DO NOT compost.

One important distinction to make is this article's purpose is not to force anyone to finish their food. Instead, the article's goal is to raise awareness of the issue and demonstrate that small, simple actions can make meaningful contributions to our beautiful community.

If you would like to be part of the solution, feel free to reach Rhythm and/or Zachary via Teams or Email. You can also follow WasteZero Plus on Instagram.