Lin King

To most students residing off-campus during the COVID-19 pandemic, away from the bustling dining halls and the ever-crowded campus cafes, food waste may not be a top priority. On campus, however, Cal Dining and other campus entities continue to work toward reducing the amount of food UC Berkeley wastes.

In order for UC Berkeley to reach our zero waste by 2020 goals, these are the bold next steps our students and administration must also adopt. In fact, as an institution of higher learning and the No. 1 public university in the world, we should now go even further in leading the way to eliminating the use of single-use disposable plastics and other landfill items on campus.

We’re not angry about the news that UC Berkeley will sometimes throw the contents of compost and recycling bins into landfill dumpsters; we’re just disappointed. It’s like finding out Santa Claus isn’t real.

Following protocol, campus custodians and groundskeepers will throw the contents of compost and recycling bins into landfill dumpsters if they feel that the bins have been “contaminated."

UC Berkeley’s Zero Waste Working Group held its final meeting for the semester Thursday, in which they provided updates on current projects and efforts to reduce waste across campus.

After securing funding for a zero-waste research center that will study where waste on campus is coming from, UC Berkeley plans to eliminate all waste on campus by the year 2020.