Students are getting a reward for going green.
UPC is offering the first 50 students who volunteer for the Food Waste Audit April 22 a spot on a "will call" list for the Ben Harper concert scheduled for April 29.
They will be able to enter the concert 10 minutes early with a friend who is a student, having their pick of where they would like to sit and they will not have to wait in line for a ticket.
The "will call" will be open all night.
"UPC is proud to support the sustainability movement on campus," said UPC Director of Major Entertainment Chappel McCollister. "We feel the food audit is a very important project for the minimization of food waste on campus. This is much deeper than just recycling."
Starting Friday at 1 a.m., students who wish to volunteer can send an e-mail from their Auburn account to aureuse@auburn.edu with "Food Waste Audit volunteer" in the subject line. The cut off is Monday, April 20 at midnight.
There will be snacks and drinks available after the audit which will take place on Earth Day from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Student Center loading dock. Those participating need to arrive at 2:30 p.m.
All students, including those who do not want to participate in the UPC incentive are
"The main reason we are doing this waste audit is to try to identify how much compostable food waste and noncompostable food waste, like service wear, cups, straws, plates, bowls, forks, spoons, recyclables, tins and then what's trash," said Recycling and Solid Waste Coordinator Donny Addison.
Addison said the data from the audit will help show the need for a compost to the University.
"Our overall goal is to create a composting program for the whole entire University, campus wide, for all organic waste to go to, to be turned into soil to be used," Addison said.
Senior Executive Chef for Tiger Dining Emil Topel said while the kitchen already tracks it's waste, there is no outlet for it. The audit will help it form a plan about what to do with the waste.
"Hopefully the plan is where going to learn how much we have and then have a plan for it," Topel said.
Topel said he wants The Village to be entirely green when the buildings open.
Addison said Harvard University did a similar audit in 2003 and found the average student generates .3 pounds of food waste a day.
"The idea for campus is we have to pay per ton to dispose of that material," Addison said.
Addison said if you apply that to Auburn, that estimates to about 1,300 tons of food waste a year that the University pays to send to the landfill.
Liason for the Environmental Awareness Organization Clay McInnis said while the University would have to pay money for a compost infrastructure, they would see their investment returned.
"The infrastructure, we're not talking about a lot of money," McInnis said. "We just need to start some where and that some where is getting the data that Donny is trying to get to convince the University to do kind of a no brainer program so that we can save the University money."
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