Going Green in Dining Services
Dining Services participates in the
WMU sustainability initiative
to reduce waste, conserve vital resources, and protect the campus environment. Read more about current Dining Services practices to recycle, reuse, reduce waste and conserve energy.
WMU students have also shown tremendous support and initiated green projects to help make campus dining environmentally friendly according to the Western Herald student newspaper.
Locally sourced products
WMU Dining Service is committed to serving products grown and/or processed in the Great Lakes states (Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin). Items that are grown and/or processed in this region are labeled with our Locally Sourced logo in the dining halls. Find out more about locally sourced products in Dining Services.
Trayless dining halls
Every day hundreds of pounds of food waste from cafeterias goes down the garbage disposal and is transferred to wastewater treatment plants. In 2008, students from class ENVS 4100: Appropriate Technology and Sustainability - The campus as a Living Laboratory with Dr. Harold Glasser conducted a food waste audit and found that food waste was reduced by up to 30% when trays were removed in the Davis and Valley I dining halls during a pilot study.
Participants in the ENVS 4100 class study, Ryan Koziatek and Carrie Susemihl suggest four steps Toward Sustainability and Addressing Food Waste to improve campus efficiency and reduce the environmental impact.
Instead of throwing away excess amounts of food, Dining Services has chosen to eliminate trays in several dining halls to help reduce food waste. Burnham, Valley I, and Davis dining halls have discontinued tray use as a result of the student study.
In addition to reducing food waste, there are also environmental savings that result from the decreased dish-washing volume. Fewer cleaning chemicals are used, less energy is consumed to run dish machines, and there is less water waste.
Reusable drink cups
WMU Dining Services introduced the Café GoCup as an eco-friendly alternative to disposable packaging. The insulated travel cup can be used at any Dining Services Campus Café for fountain beverages, coffee, tea and cappaccino drinks. In addition to getting a discount on the price of drink refills, the reusable Café GoCup helps to reduce unnecessary landfill waste normally generated by styrofoam and paper cups.
Be kind to the earth! The Café GoCup is refillable, reusable and recyclable.
Recyled napkin dispensing
Dining Services replaced table napkins with new Tork Xpress napkin dispensing systems. To minimize waste and reduce the environmental impact, the new dispensers:- Use 100% recycled post-consumer recycled fiber napkins.
- Increases hygiene and cuts waste by delivering one napkin at a time.
- Utilizes a chlorine-free bleaching process that eliminates the release of damaging chlorine compounds into the environment.
Eat fresh - reduce waste
In WMU dining halls, students can select their own portions so they do not waste food. By eating in dining halls, students help to reduce packaging waste by eating fresh foods instead of pre-packaged single-serving portions.
Dining Services offers self serve, so students can choose just the right amount of food for their appetite, and they are always welcome to go back for more. All students are encouraged to take what they think they really want to eat, and get additional portions if they are still hungry.
Dining Service also offers cook-to-order specialty options, such as the Marketplace Grill, Valley I Sub Shop, Valley II Stir-fry Station, and the Garden Wok. These specialty options foods are prepared as needed only, which results in reduced waste and energy consumption.