Iowa City Students Dig In to Study Waste

By Mark Carlson, Reporter

Tools

By Liz Blood

Story Created: Dec 13, 2012 at 10:25 PM CDT

Story Updated: Dec 13, 2012 at 11:32 PM CDT

CORALVILLE, Iowa - A group of Iowa City middle school students suited up to take a close look at food waste Thursday afternoon.

The group is working to determine how much waste from restaurants potentially could be spared from ending up in the landfill.

"The data collected by this will give a very detailed portrait of what comes out (of restaurants) that can help guide decisions for the future," said Bart Knox, a member of the Iowa Waste Exchange, a division of the Department of Natural Resources.

The students from Southeast and Northwest Junior High Schools hope to find alternative ways to dispose of food waste.

One option is to create compost from the food waste, which would decrease the amount of methane gas at the landfill said Daniel Burgess, one of the students.

The group spent Thursday afternoon digging through the trash at Applebees in Coralville. Last fall, the same group audited the trash at Carlos O'Kelly's in Iowa City.

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