Sustainability in the office

Rochelle Strassner, sustainability and outreach manager at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, says most Americans spend about a third of their time in the office and that’s where some of the food waste comes from.

“The EPA estimates that food waste accounts for 58% of the methane emitted from landfills. So that’s a very large portion of the greenhouse gases coming from landfills,” Strassner explained.

Strassner says you can help eliminate this food waste by being sustainable in the office.

“When you’re packing your lunches, make sure you use a reusable container, if you can use a glass, you know, Tupperware container, use that,” Strassner said.

And keeping takeout boxes can help, too.

“Use it for your lunches, but you can also have a spare in your office. So if there’s extra food at an event or something, you can now take it home, which also helps combat food waste,” Strassner said.

Strassner says a lot of things we think about are waste that are actually compost.

“Anything that is organic matter… so anything that is food will then be compost. Anything that doesn’t fit into the organic category or your local recycling rules, the rest will be considered waste,” Strassner said.

She says the elements of the compost are reused.

“It breaks down and decomposes and then is made into a soil amendment that can then be used in your gardens or in landscaping or things like that and no, it doesn’t have an odor,” Strassner said .

At SUNY ESF, they perform waste audits.

“We go there and we take our trash and our recycling. We throw it away. We see how much trash, recycling and even compost was in a certain bin. And then we sort it again to see what should have been trash, what should have been recycled and what should have been compost,” Strassner said.

In 2019, SUNY ESF standardized all of its trash cans and implemented mini trash cans to help reduce waste.

“We make sure we always have all three, trash, recycling and compost, together,” Strassner said.

They will move the labels above the bins to make them more accessible.

Strassner says it can be difficult to live a completely sustainable lifestyle, but it’s the small practices like in the office that can really make a difference.