Berkeley Dining is committed to actively engaging in practices that reduce both solid waste and food waste in our operations.
Campus-wide Waste Tracking
Since 2021, Berkeley Dining has used Leanpath to measure, analyze, and reduce waste in real time.
- In use in the back-of-house at all four dining commons, three campus restaurants, the Eateries at MLK, and Training Table, our student-athlete dining facility.
- Empowers our chefs and staff to turn insights into action—reducing overproduction, spoilage, and trimming losses—while making sustainability part of everyday kitchen culture.
Reducing food waste conserves resources, cuts methane emissions from landfills, supports a just food system, and helps fight climate change. With real-time data, operational improvements, and student engagement, we’re building a smarter, more resilient, and more equitable dining system.
Food Donations
- Berkeley Dining proudly donates safe, uneaten, overproduced food to students and community members facing food insecurity through the campus food pantry and local nonprofits.
- Each semester, Berkeley Dining donates over 50,000 pounds of food or about 40,000 meals.
Food Waste
- Students are encouraged to take only what they will eat in our all-you-care-to-eat dining commons to reduce the environmental impact of food waste.
- Food that cannot be donated is composted at a local compost facility in compliance with S.B. 1383,
Cooking Oil Recycling
Berkeley Dining collaborates with a vendor to recycle our used cooking oil into biodiesel, reducing both waste and emissions on the road.
Recycle/compost this
Disposables
We make great efforts to ensure our disposable packaging received from our vendors is properly disposed of. When serving dishes on disposable plates and cutlery, we ensure that all are locally compostable. Please help us reach our zero-waste goals by following bin signage and sorting your waste into the correct container.