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Dining halls are great and with endless

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and endless supply it can seem

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like a bounty of delicious food you may

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be tempted to try everything but do you

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think about how much food you'll

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actually eat when putting it on your

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plate? RecyclingWorks Massachusetts

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reports that the average residential

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college student creates 142 pounds of

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food waste every year. With approximately

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three thousand eight hundred fifty

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students living on the Tufts campus that

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means that an estimated five hundred

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forty seven thousand pounds of food are

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wasted on our campus every single year

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from students alone. Where does this

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waste go? Most colleges and their dining

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halls on average throw away 22 million

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pounds of unused food according to the

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Food Recovery Network. The UN Food and

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Agriculture Organization reports that

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global food waste generates 3.3 billion

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tons of co2 emissions annually. Those

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average 22 million pounds of thrown-away

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food from college campuses end up in

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landfills or that organic matter creates

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methane. Methane and co2 are generated

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from uncontrolled anaerobic digestion

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and are the leading causes of climate

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change

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EPA's overview of greenhouse gases

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explains that methane traps up to a

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hundred times more heat than co2 does in

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the atmosphere within a span of five

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years. This trapped heat from both gases

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causes climate change but that's not the

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only environmental impact that stems

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from food waste.

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Think about all the resources it takes

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to create that food at the first place.

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Imagine four quarter pound hamburgers.

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That alone equates 1847 gallons of water

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260 square feet of land to grow the feed

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and 20 pounds of carbon dioxide released

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reported by Business Insider. Now imagine

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all of those resources going straight

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into the trash and that's just one

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carbon heavy pound of the 22 million

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generated by universities alone. Now you

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can start to see why food waste matters.

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With compost the food gets broken down

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rather than rotting and releasing

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methane. That's why municipal composting

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programs are extremely beneficial for

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the environment. Composting is a natural

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process in which microorganisms break

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down organic material into the essential

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component of soil called humus or

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compost this material