In an effort to reduce waste on campus, CSUN Dining provided the following materials to assist with CSUN Garden's food composting activities:

• Pre-consumer vegetable and fruit peelings from Arbor Grill, Marketplace, Orange Grove, Bistro, Pub, and Juice It Up!
• Coffee ground from all 5 Freudian Sip locations on campus

CSUN Dining is also diverting from the landfill pre- and post-consumer food waster generated at Geronimo's and Bamboo Terrance. This compostable material is taken to a local composting facility and turned into rich fertilizer.

To allow for maximum waster diversion, Geronimo's and Bamboo Terrance have decided to go strawless. Straws are made from non-compostable plastic and cannot be included with the compostable materials.

Additionally CSUN Dining is currently participating in a 3 year US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Food Recovery Challenge (FRC). Working with the CSUN Institute of Sustainability, CSUN Dining has had over 60 tons of food waste diverted from the landfill and turned into compost.

The waste diversion programs in place are helping CSUN Dining get one step closer to becoming a zero waste facility.  

CSUN has achieved regional recognition from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Sustainable Materials Management Program as a recipient of a 2014 Food Recovery Challenge (FRC) Certificate of Achievement. 

CSUN received an award for Best Practices in Innovative Waste Reduction for the project, “Integrating pre-consumer waste diversion and organic food gardening in a learning opportunity” at the 2015 California Higher Education Sustainability Conference. The project lead was Institute for Sustainability Faculty Associate, Mario Giraldo, who heads the coordinated effort between the Institute and CSUN Dining, diverting waste from campus kitchens and Freudian Sip coffee shops. This provides cost savings to the university, advances a zero-waste agenda, fosters a culture of sustainability, and provides work experience for students. 

CSUN’s Institute for Sustainability is in need of student volunteers to assist in the campus garden. This would be a great opportunity to get involved with campus sustainability projects as well as meet other like-minded students.