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Sustainable Dining: Waste Reduction
​Description: Place composting bins in easily accessible areas of the dining halls.

Strategy:

- Based on Whitehair's findings, we recommend that the university place signs around the dining hall that encourage students to compost their food scraps (eg. Make a difference, compost your waste!)
- Using Harrison and Chao-Jung's findings, we implore the university to create signs and videos (which are aired in the dining halls) that communicate the benefits of composting to students. These signs and videos will also teach students about how the composting process works.​
- Based on Keller's findings, we recommend that the University of Michigan send out weekly emails to dorm residents detailing the progress and impact composting in dining halls has had.
​Description: Decrease tray usage in dining hall facilities by moving trays to a less easily accessible location in the dining hall.
Strategy:

- Based on Katzev's ideas, we believe the University of Michigan should have students sign a pledge at the beginning of the year committing themselves to not use cafeteria trays, promoting sustained change.
- Also based on Katzev's ideas, we recommend that the university use a small incentive to get students to sign the pledge. This will allow students to become intrinsically motivated, creating sustained behavior change.
- Based on Chao-Jung's ideas, we recommed that the university advertise the fact that a significant student (eg. Mitch McGary, Denard Robinson) signed the pledge and does not use trays.
Alternative Strategy:

- Remove all trays from dining halls. However, it is important to note that this does not promote students becoming intrinsically motivated to developing pro-environment tendencies.
Recommendations For The University of Michigan
Increase Composting
Trayless Dining
Based on our research, we recommend that the University of Michigan implement trayless dining and composting efforts to reduce its food waste and cut operating costs. In the space below, we outline the respective efforts and specific attributes for each that will maximize their effectiveness.
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