Ohio State U Announces New Waste Reduction Efforts
The Ohio State University's Energy Services and Sustainability office recently announced several new programs aimed at meeting the university's goal to divert 40 percent of its waste from the landfill. Initiatives in the works include the creation of the new Zero Waste Event Service that provides waste containers for trash, recycling and compost for special events on campus; the testing of a pre-consumer composting program at specific areas on campus; and waste infrastructure and waste stream audits by staff, students and community volunteers for the Ohio State Spring Game. The information gathered will be used for its Zero Waste Stadium initiative, with at least 90 percent of game day waste recycled or composted starting with the 2011 football season.
SUNY Oswego Launches Campus Donation Initiative
State University of New York at Oswego has created the Leave Green initiative to encourage students residing off campus to donate household and personal items as they prepare to leave town for the summer. Items to be collected include clothing, linens, rugs, kitchenware and appliances, electronics, furniture, office and school supplies, unopened cleaning products and nonperishable foods. The collected goods will be donated to local organizations.
U San Diego Opens E-Waste Collection Center
The University of San Diego (CA) has opened an E-Waste Collection Center near campus. The center is open six days a week and accepts the following items: microwave ovens, gaming consoles, DVD players, VCRs, telephones, cell phones, digital cameras, radios, stereo components, cables and cords, televisions, flat panel displays, computer monitors, computers (CPUs), laptops, keyboards, printers, mice, hard drives, tape drives, networking equipment, modems, routers, switches, servers, printed circuit boards, lab equipment, fax machines, power supplies and zip drives.
Arizona State U Students Conduct Waste Audit
Students in Arizona State University's School of Sustainability recently conducted a 15-hour organic waste audit that resulted in more than 800 pounds and 69 bags of organic waste, recyclables and trash. With the aim of working toward a more sustainable solution to manage organic waste generated on campus, the students sorted through items destined for the landfill or a recycling facility. One-third of the compiled trash included pre-consumer compostable materials that didn't make it to the intended users including uncooked waffle batter and 45 pounds of raw meat and fat scraps. Understanding the makeup of its waste footprint is the first step in determining what strategies the university can implement to reduce food waste.
Carnegie Mellon Debuts 'Giving Wall' Initiative
Carnegie Mellon University (PA) has unveiled the "Giving Wall," an initiative to curb excessive waste. The Giving Wall is based on the idea of a lost and found station, where students can discard unwanted items on a row of shelves in the basement of the University Center. The items are up for grabs to anyone who wants them. In addition to hoping for an increase in campus recycling, the university aims to benefit the community by re-gifting items to those who need them.
U Pacific Students to Graduate in Recycled Gowns
Students graduating in May from the University of the Pacific (CA) will be wearing gowns made out of recycled plastic bottles. Each gown will consist of recycled plastic from 23 plastic bottles. After the ceremony, the robes will be returned to recycling bins where they will be reused in years to come.
Elmhurst College Holds E-Waste Recycling Event
Elmhurst College (IL) recently held a one-day event for students, staff, faculty and community members to drop off old televisions, computer monitors and other electronic waste in a trailer that was taken to a private business for recycling. The event was an effort to minimize electronic waste by making it easier to recycle electronic appliances.
Lake Superior College Students Repurpose Styrofoam
Students participating in Lake Superior College’s (MN) Integrated Manufacturing Program have created a solution to help divert packaging Styrofoam from the landfill. The Styrofoam shredder, designed as a prototype, shreds large Styrofoam packaging material to be recycled as packing material, stuffing for bean bag chairs, dog beds and outdoor planters. The project recently won a gold medal in the Community Service category at the State SkillsUSA competition.
American U Advances Composting Program
American University (DC) has expanded its composting program to include paper towels. This change is the result of an audit conducted by the student sustainability group, Green Eagles, which revealed that paper towels in the residence halls accounted for 150 pounds of daily garbage. Biodegradable green bags have been installed in all campus bathrooms to mitigate the waste.
Fleming College Frost Campus to Phase Out Bottled Water
Fleming College's (ON) Frost campus has announced plans to be bottled water free by this time next year. A joint initiative developed by students and supported by faculty, staff and administration, the plan to eliminate the sale of bottled water on campus includes the immediate identification of "Bottled Water Free Zones" on campus, an audit of access to public water on campus and a plan to upgrade the availability of public drinking water.
RecycleMania Announces 2011 Final Results
Continuing its six-year streak, California State University, San Marcos earned Grand Champion status of the 2011 RecycleMania competition. More than 600 colleges and universities participated in RecyleMania this year, recycling or composting 91 million pounds of material during the course of the eight-week competition. Union College (NY) won both the Per Capita Classic and Cardboard awards; North Lake College (TX) retained the Waste Minimization title; Brandeis University (MA) won the top spot in the Food Waste Organics category; and Stetson University (FL) earned first place in the Paper category. Rounding out the list, Rutgers University (NJ) earned the Gorilla Prize and Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (MA) won the Cans and Bottles category. The University of Virginia's "True Love" video won the inaugural RecycleMania video contest, selected out of eight finalists offered up to a popular vote through the RecycleMania Facebook page.
Texas Wesleyan U Athletes, Actors Initiate Recycling Program
The gymnastics team and theatre troupe at Texas Wesleyan University have joined together to start a recycling program. There was no recycling available on campus before the two teams contacted the Facilities Services director about implementing their plan. Once approved, the students began the first phase by installing aluminum recycling bins in every building on campus. As the program raises money, they plan to install recycling bins for more products in years to come.
Concordia U Plans for Bottled Water Bans
Concordia University (QC) has announced a three-year plan to upgrade drinking fountains in most campus buildings to accommodate reusable drink containers and remove bottled water for sale in vending machines. The university will launch an education and communication campaign to promote the use of refill stations on campus.
Los Angeles Trade Technical College Greens Printing Services
Los Angeles Trade Technical College (CA) is working with Xerox Corporation to reconfigure its printing services to be more environmentally sustainable. Expected to cut operational costs by $1.5 million, the five-year contract will consolidate all printers, copiers and fax machines, and introduce a new pop-up window that reminds users to save paper and ink by not printing unnecessary documents.
U Wisconsin-Whitewater Offers e-Waste Recycling
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus has started a campus-wide initiative to recycle e-waste. As part of the three phases of the TREE (Technology Repurposing and Electronics E-cycling) program, the university will upgrade its surplus computers program, establish ink recycling bins and offer surplus computer equipment for sale.
College of Saint Benedict Bans Sale of Bottled Water
As part of its commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2035, the College of Saint Benedict (MN) has banned "the sale of plain, plastic bottled water on campus, and the purchase of plain, plastic bottled water with institutional funds," states a recently announced new policy. The policy, which was endorsed by the college's Cabinet, Sustainability Council and the Student Senate, will go into effect in August 2011 at the start of the new academic year.
Harvard U Expands Composting Program
After a recent waste audit that revealed that 25 percent of campus waste at Harvard University (MA) is organic material, the university's Green Team and the Green Living program made compost bins available at every dormitory, academic and administrative building on the Harvard Law School campus. The audit also found up to 40 percent compostable waste being thrown away in dorm garbage cans.
Seattle U Campus Recycling Rate Jumps 11%
Seattle University (WA) has announced that its overall campus recycling and composting rate is 60 percent, an 11 percent increase in the past year. The university received the Recycler of the Year award last year from Washington State Recycling Association. The university maintains compost collection in residence halls, which is hauled to Cedar Grove, a company that produces natural, local compost for farmers and gardeners across the Northwest.
U Louisville Adds Food Composting to Campus Community Garden
The University of Louisville (KY) has added food composting to its campus community gardening initiative. With a $13,5000 grant from a private company, the university plans to place six to eight 90-gallon compost drums for food waste at the Garden Commons site and equip student residence halls with five-gallon buckets for students to throw food waste into. The compost produced will fertilize the garden.
U South Carolina Students Perform Trash Inventory
Twenty undergraduate students at the University of South Carolina are sorting through the contents of campus dumpsters to determine how many recyclables are being thrown away. The waste audit is part of an effort to make an informed investment toward the improvement of campus recycling. The audit, which looks at purchasing, custodial services, collections and recycling practices at all levels of the university's operations, will wrap up in December.
Hartwick College Switches to Zero Sort Recycling
Hartwick College (NY) has implemented a Zero Sort Recycling program on campus, doubling the amount of recyclable materials collected during the month of February. All manner of recyclable material may now be placed, without sorting, on the recycling side of the new dumpsters on the college's campus.
Rice U Introduces Single-Stream Recycling
Rice University (TX) has announced the conversion of its campus recycling system to single stream, allowing the campus community to place all recyclable materials in one single bin. The move allows for more types of plastic to be recycled and the campus has already seen an increase in campus recycling efforts in data being collected for this year's RecycleMania Tournament.
U Georgia Athens Campus Recycling Hits 50% Mark
The University of Georgia, Athens has announced that it is now recycling about 50 percent of its campus waste. The university is testing a prototype musical recycling bin that plays 16 seconds of the university’s football fight song each time a bottle or can is deposited in the bin and hopes to get a grant to test more of the bins, powered by small solar panels, across campus. The university is also looking into the cost of including a recycling bin that is attached to every trash can on campus.
Iowa State U Students Pilot Campus Bus Biodiesel Project
Iowa State University students are working to convert campus buses to run on used vegetable oil from the cafeteria. The team's grease processor is expected to produce 55 gallons of fuel per week. If the program is successful, the students plan to ramp up production by processing waste oil from local restaurants and selling the waste vegetable oil as biodiesel.
Yale U Works to Decrease Dorm Waste
Yale University's (CT) College Council has announced that it will direct $10,000 toward projects aimed at decreasing wasteful student habits. The primary projects include a Summer Storage program that allows students to store their items at the school before leaving for the summer break; the Spring Salvage and Trash to Treasure programs that promote reusable items through second-hand sales; and rentable Hydration Stations that will replace bottled water during outdoor events.
U Calgary Expands Recycling Efforts
The University of Calgary (AB) has announced the addition of hundreds of new recycling bins across campus. The multi-phase upgrade to the university's waste and recycling infrastructure kicked off 800 new blue bins for recycling paper/cardboard and beverage containers. The bins will include new signage that clearly indicates what can or cannot go inside.
U Chicago Debuts Recycling Directory
In an effort to assist the campus community to recycle as many everyday items as possible, the University of Chicago (IL) has launched a new Recycling Directory that compiles campus and other local recycling resources. The items included range from cosmetics and eyeglasses to appliances and batteries. Each item in the directory contains a brief description about the importance of recycling the item, followed by options for recycling on campus (if available) as well as in the City of Chicago.
U Iowa Partners with City Dump for Methane Gas Project
The University of Iowa plans to buy methane gas from Iowa City’s landfill and pipe it over to heat facilities on its campus. The university will pay the city for this service, and Iowa City plans to spend $2 million for the gas conditioning and compression equipment, while the university will spend $500,000 updating engines to burn the landfill gas. The project is not touted as less expensive, but as an opportunity to operate facilities on fuel that would otherwise be garbage.
U Maryland Exceeds Recycling Goals
With a recycling rate of 63 percent, the University of Maryland has surpassed its 2010 recycling goal. The university's single-stream recycling efforts, Can the Can program and the addition of grass and leaves composting contributed to a rate of 3 percent higher than its Climate Action Plan called for. This waste diversion rate is up from 17 percent in 2003.
U Canberra Bans Bottled Water Sales on Campus
The University of Canberra (Australia) has banned the sale of bottled water on campus. Bottled water will be replaced in campus cafes and shops by water vending machines that refill reusable water bottles at a cheaper price than bottled water. The university has also installed six water bottle refill stations on campus. The ban is estimated to reduce water bottle sales by 140,000 bottles per year.
U Exeter Receives Recycle Zones Donation
Part of Coca-Cola's nationwide "Keep It Going" campaign to increase recycling on college campuses, airports and hospitals, the University of Exeter (UK) is the latest campus to implement on-campus Recycle Zones. The company has provided the university with 200 specialized bins for card, paper, cans and bottles in popular areas on campus.
American U Urges Congress to Cut Bottled Water Spending
American University's (DC) Office of Sustainability administered a "Tap Water Challenge" to attendees at a recent news conference at the Capitol. The conference was held to announce a Corporate Accountability International Report that revealed that the U.S. House of Representatives spends nearly $1 million on bottled water per year. The university challenged attendees including Takoma Park Mayor Bruce Williams to correctly identify tap water among popular brands of bottled water while blindfolded. The university reports that no one succeeded. In addition to urging Congress to renew investments in public water systems and cut spending on bottled water, the university will also ramp up on-campus efforts to discourage bottled water purchases including the addition of more than a hundred water bottle filling spigots on water fountains throughout campus.
Elon U Expands Composting Efforts
Elon University (NC) has added another campus cafe to its list of campus composting locations. The Office of Sustainability has organized volunteers to stand near the composting bins during high traffic hours in an effort to educate students about the benefits of composting. During the 2009-2010 school year, the university diverted more than 100,000 pounds of waste from the landfill through food composting initiatives.
Rice U Students Initiate Campus Composting
Rice University's (TX) Baker College servery has expanded its locally sourced food efforts to include composting, thanks to student efforts. During the fall 2010 semester course, "Environmental Issues: Rice into the Future," that looked at the food waste created by the campus' serveries, a student proposed asking the farmers involved in the Rice University Farmers Market if they could use campus food scraps for compost. In what the university calls its "farm-to-fork-to-farm" program, the university now delivers its food scraps back to the farmers who grow the food.
U Calgary Switches to Compostable Food Packaging
Based on a recent Students' Union poll that revealed overwhelming support for a switch to compostable packaging, the University of Calgary's (AB) MacEwan Conference and Events, along with Chartwells and Good Earth vendors, will eliminate plastic foam packaging for take-out foods on campus. Seventy-seven percent of the more than 2,500 respondents to the survey were willing to pay 25 cents more for a meal if served in compostable packaging, the upper end of what the campus community will likely pay for the switch.
U Florida Hosts Green REthink Campaign
The University of Florida has launched its REthink campaign, an effort to engage, educate and empower students to reduce, reuse and recycle with a campus-wide cleanup. The Office of Sustainability recruited nearly 300 volunteers to collect nearly 3,000 pounds of garbage. Numerous events to engage students will be ongoing until the campaign's completion on April 22, 2011.
Syracuse U Cancels Bulk Delivery of Phone Books
Verizon telephone directories will be delivered to Syracuse University (NY) based on pre-orders from individual departments rather than a bulk delivery to buildings and departments for the second year in a row. Initiated last year, the university ordered 1,490 copies in 2010 versus the approximately 7,000 phone books that were distributed across campus in 2009.
U Mass Medical School Reduces Campus Paper Usage
As a result of urging the campus community to think about their use of paper over the last two years, the amount of paper used by the University of Massachusetts Medical School dropped in fiscal year 2010. Of the paper used, significantly more of it was made from recycled content. In fiscal year 2009, the university purchased 7,224 case of paper, of which 13 percent were made with recycled content. In fiscal year 2010, the total amount of paper bought dropped to 7,096 cases, with 27 percent recycled paper.
Clemson U Expands Recycling Efforts
With a grant from Alcoa, the College and University Recycling Coalition and Keep America Beautiful, Clemson University (SC) has expanded its campus recycling program with more than 7,000 recycling bins for offices, classrooms and residence halls at a cost of about $49,000. Each office will receive a bin for paper and a mini trash bin for non-recyclable waste. In the residence halls, students can use the bins for paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and aluminum. Trash cans will be removed from classrooms and recycling stations will be placed in convenient locations in the hallways. The university hopes to up its current recycling rate of 22.25 percent to between 35 and 40 percent.
Cleveland State U Starts Composting Program
Cleveland State University has announced a partnership with Rosby Farm to implement a composting program on campus. Raw and cooked foods, soiled paper items, coffee filers and cardboard from the university's main production kitchens will be kept out of landfills and manufactured into soil products for plant growth.
Mississippi State U Upgrades Recycling Program
Mississippi State University has signed a $50,000 annual contract to jumpstart its campus-wide recycling program. The contract with Bluebox LLC eases the recycling process by enabling customers to throw all recyclables into the same container without sorting.
U Mississippi Improves Recycling Program with $100K Grant
The University of Mississippi will direct 60 percent of a $100,000 grant issued from the state government to improve its recycling program. The primary investment will be the purchase of new recycling bins on campus. The remaining 40 percent of the grant will be invested in recycling improvements for the university's hosting town of Oxford, Miss.
Yale U Goes Paperless with Annual Financial Report
Yale University’s (CT) Business Operations has announced that it will opt out of printing the typical 8,000 - 10,000 copies of its annual financial report. Instead, the report is available for viewing, downloading and selective printing on its website. This is estimated to save the university $60,000 and more than 300,000 pages of paper. All printing will be done on 100 percent recycled paper for those hard copies that are requested, part of the university's commitment to reduce paper purchasing by 25 percent by 2013.
Kansas U Saves $100,000 in Recycled Furniture
Kansas University's Surplus Property Recycling Program has saved an estimated $100,000 in recycled furniture. This program aligns departments who need furniture with those who want to get rid of furniture on campus. The program has developed an inventory and has a store on campus. Many projects are small in scale, but they recently refurnished the entire Transit and MV Transportation offices with recycled furniture.
U Chicago Institutes Policy on Bottled Water
The University of Chicago's (IL) Facilities Services has implemented a policy on bottled water that eliminates plastic water bottles in Facilities Services buildings, meetings and events. Instead, the department is providing reusable pitchers, cups and trays for serving water at meetings and events, and supplying each staff member with a reusable aluminum water bottle. The department will also promote the continued installation of water bottle filling stations in all Facilities staff locations.
U Chicago Debuts Upgraded Residential Recycling Program
Students living in the House System at the University of Chicago (IL) returned from winter break to a simplified recycling system that allows all recyclable items to be deposited in any recycling container in the dorms. The House System now joins the rest of the campus, which had already converted to this single-stream recycling program. The university currently recycles about 40 percent of its waste stream.
U Massachusetts Medical School Recycling Rates Rise
The University of Massachusetts Medical School has announced a rise in campus recycling rates of 30 percent. Since its last fiscal year that ended June 2010, which posted an annual recycling rate of 23 percent, the university has contracted a new vendor, Northeast Material Handling, to take care of large recycling items like furniture, refrigerators and fixtures. The university plans to reach a 50 percent recycling rate with additional bins and signage across campus.
U Wisconsin Oshkosh Implements 100% Recycled Paper Policy
The University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh has announced its switch from 30 percent post-consumer recycled bond to 100 percent recycled paper on campus. The first reams have been distributed and are expected to save about 1,100 trees per year. The university's Campus Sustainability Council is working with departments across campus to reduce paper consumption by 5 percent to make the initiative budget neutral and increase paper consumption awareness.
EPA Reveals Game Day Challenge Results
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced the winners of its Game Day Challenge. More than 75 schools participated in the October competition, targeting more than 2.8 million fans and diverting more than 500,000 pounds of waste. Ithaca College (NY) and the University of Tennessee at Martin tied for Waste Minimization Champion; University of California, Davis was named the Diversion Rate Champion; University of Central Oklahoma earned both the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Champion and Recycling Champion titles; and Marist College (NY) was named the Organics Reduction Champion.
U Scranton Students Initiate Off-Campus Housing Recycling Efforts
As part of a communication senior seminar class, students at the University of Scranton (PA) have spearheaded a recycling program for students living in off-campus housing. The students initially launched “Bin Your Bottles” as a Facebook campaign and as a result, about 50 off-campus student households requested recycling bins. Now the program provides recycling bins at off-campus locations in cooperation with the Scranton, Pa. Department of Public Works.
