Colorado State University
IN-1: Innovation 1

Americans dump an estimated 34 million tons of food waste a year into landfills, occupying 14% of the space, second only to paper. A partnership between CSU and the city of Fort Collins seeks to address this disproportionate burden by diverting half a ton of food waste a day away from landfills, sending it to the local water treatment plant. Once integrated into the treatment plant in a pulp form, the waste can be processed along with the water. This prevents food from accumulating in landfills were it releases methane. The project is geared at reducing a major driver in climate change. CSU has had a long standing commitment to reducing Housing and Dining Waste and has previous installed on-campus and off-campus composting systems to manage pre and post-consumer waste from the Dining Halls. Those systems already capture almost 100,000 lbs. of food each year. The new partnership with city has already captured more than twice as much food waste annually – bringing Colorado State’s total food diversion to over 300,000 lbs. of pure food waste a year.