Who We Are

A passionate team of students who work to ensure the correct usage of food waste bins in student residences. Starting in 2024, all of MIT’s undergraduate dormitories got residential food waste bins. We help implement these bins by tracking them and maintaining their usage. Beyond that, Food Waste Fighters initiated an education campaign to help our fellow students dispose of long-expired milk, unfinished takeout, or the green box leftovers correctly.

Why We Care

Food waste is an enormous problem in the United States, as the large portion of labor and energy that goes into food production goes down the drain. Food waste, defined more specifically as food ending up in the landfill or the sewer, damages the environment through rogue methane emissions and polluting our groundwater drinking supply. On a more personal scale, food waste attracts pests and makes our already not-so-big living spaces even more cluttered. Thus, for the sake of our wallets, our comfort and our planet, we should make sure less of our food becomes greenhouse gas and more of it gets put to good use.

MIT is committed to a climate impact goal of reducing annual trash disposed by 30% by 2030. Since campus waste audits show that 35 percent of MIT’s trash is food waste, collecting food waste in bins before it gets placed in the trash is a critical opportunity for limiting the waste generated at MIT and reducing MIT’s climate impacts.

Meet the team and dorm assignments on the Food Waste Fighter page!