Measures in the canteen
- Food leftovers in the canteen are collected
- Leftovers are used in the production of biogas and biodiesel
- In order to avoid waste, food in the canteen is prepared in batches
About 82 kg of food per capita are thrown away in Germany. If we add trade and industry, 11 million tonnes of food end up in the waste bin every year. In the canteen, thousands of students put their plates on one of the tray treadmills every day. After some winding curves, the plates including leftover food arrive at the kitchen.
Are the leftovers simply thrown away now? Does someone maybe eat them? Both is wrong: Leftover food left on the plates is delivered to waste disposal companies either as "waste grease" or "wet waste". Special machines ensure that the remaining food residues are removed from the plates and trays and collected as wet waste and end up straight in recyclable waste. The leftovers are used for biogas production (electricity and heat). The waste grease is used for producing biodiesel. The wet waste is first prepared by a waste disposal company from Pfungstadt and then recycled into biogas. The same applies to non-edible waste generated during the preparation of food in the canteen.
In order to avoid food waste, we prepare our food in batches so that only smaller quantities are available to our guests fresh and to the required extent. In order to throw away as little as possible, we produce smaller batches towards the end of the serving hours. This also explains why some dishes are no longer available at certain times.
Other measures:
- Baked goods from the bistro are put up for sale at LesBAR (ULB) shortly after the bistro closes on fridays.
- In addition to conventional paper bags, pepper & salt are also offered in pepper and salt mills. This gives guests the opportunity to decide for themselves. At the tray return points, containers are available for full paper bags that have not been used by the guests, because otherwise they often end up in the trash.
- In the canteens & bistros, we increasingly rely on reusable bottles and exchanged disposable bottles, e.g. lemonade, for reusable bottles.
