Elmhurst College Hosts No Waste Lunch
Promoting green lifestyles to the incoming freshman class, the college’s no waste lunch efforts included compostable napkins, plates and silverware, and a team of volunteers to person the waste receptacles.
U Adelaide Feeds Community from Surplus Ingredients
(Australia): Partnering with OzHarvest Food Rescue, the Office of Sustainability recently fed more than 500 campus community and general public members with campus food that would have otherwise been thrown away.
Wesleyan U Admissions Goes Paperless
(U.S.): With this newly implemented paperless application system, applicants are able to submit all application materials and set up interviews online.
Western Illinois U Deploys Water Bottle Filling Stations
(U.S.): New this fall, the campus community can refill water bottles at six working stations, and by the end of the academic year, an additional 14 across campus. Since the installation of the initial stations, an estimated 77,200 16-ounce bottles have been diverted from the landfill.
Benedictine U Receives $46K for Food Composting
Made possible through a Food Scrap Composting Revitalization and Advancement Program grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the new composting project is expected to divert 105,000 pounds of waste per year. Managed by student workers, the food scrap diversion program will collect organic waste from the Lisle campus cafeteria.
Elmhurst College Receives $28K Composting Grant
Awarded by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s Food Scrap Composting Grant Program, the funding will allow the college to purchase a grinder that will help divert up to 900 gallons of compostable material and food scraps from the landfill per week.
U New Hampshire Student Turns Recycling Prgm into Nat'l Nonprofit
The launch of a new nonprofit, PLAN: The Post-Landfill Action Network, is a national expansion of the university's student-led Trash 2 Treasure program, which to date has salvaged more than 100 tons of usable materials, recycled over 2,000 electronics, and donated more than five tons of food and clothing to local shelters. Trash 2 Treasure co-founder and recent graduate Alex Fried founded PLAN to work with student groups, administrators and sustainability offices to reduce campus waste nationwide.
U Wisconsin-Oshkosh Breaks Ground on $7M Biodigester Facility
Funded by the UW Oshkosh Foundation, the new biogas production facility at the state’s largest dairy farm will be able to generate 1.4 megawatts of electricity using livestock waste to generate, capture and combust methane. The biodigester will also be used by the university's environmental science, microbiology and sociology students as an off-campus laboratory.
York U Students Divert Nearly 27K Pounds of Waste from Landfill
The FreeStuff tables set up in each undergraduate residence during April and early May, where students were able to swap unwanted items, helped saved nearly 27,000 pounds of waste from the landfill this year. At the end of the move-out period, leftover items were donated to a local charity.
Carleton College Move Out Sale Raises $30K for Local Nonprofits
Community volunteers helped keep unwanted student items out of the landfills, sorting and organizing clothing, kitchen items, mini fridges, printers, bedding, books, and mirrors for the recent "Lighten Up" sale. After raising $30,000 for local nonprofits, the remaining items were donated to the Salvation Army or sent to electronics recycling.
Babson College Launches Pilot Food Waste Diversion Program
(U.S.): The joint initiative between Facilities Management, Sustainability Office and Sodexo Campus Services is expected to divert 1-2 tons per week of food waste produced by one campus dining hall from the landfill. Food waste will now be taken to local farms to be composted into soil. The college plans to expand the initiative to collect pre-consumer scraps from kitchen work stations and eventually collect post-consumer food waste.
Boston U 'Project Robinhood' Reduces Campus e-Waste
(U.S.): Since starting the initiative in March of 2013, IT staff Aaron Freed and Benny Soto have kept 20 computers from the landfill by refurbishing them for researchers in need. Freed and Soto haul the old computers back to their workstations with a "TRecycle," a three-wheeled vehicle built out of an old bicycle, scrap lumber and a wheel from a flea market.
Lehigh U Move Out Drive Raises $16K for Community Engagement
(U.S.): Volunteers recently helped keep items left behind by students from the the landfill by sorting and pricing them for sale. The funds raised from the initiative will support after-school homework clubs that pair university students with local schoolchildren.
Florida State U Saves 29K Pounds of Unwanted Items from Landfill
The Chuck it for Charity partnership between the university's Sustainable Campus and Housing & Residence Life includes weighing, sorting and redistributing unwanted items left behind during student move-outs to local community agencies. In the five years since its inception, the program has diverted more than 50 tons from the landfill.
Portland State U Conducts Waste Audit to Boost Diversion Efforts
With the goal of providing recommendations for improving waste diversion and reduction efforts on campus, university staff sorted through 690 pounds of campus garbage to find out what portion of materials could have been diverted from the landfill through recycling and composting, or avoided altogether by using durable goods. Recommendations to lower the percentage of materials that could have been composted (35 percent) and recycled (13 percent) include increased collection and education, enhanced recycling infrastructure and signage, and replacing restroom paper towels with efficient air hand driers.
UC Santa Cruz, City Partner to Reduce Move Out Waste
The university and the City of Santa Cruz are working with local charity organizations to provide free pick-up of bulky Items, clothing, e-waste, books and furniture from off-campus student residences as they move out for the summer. The first 100 student houses to sign up receive free pizza coupons.
U Oregon, Local Schools Team Up to Reduce Move Out Waste
Area high school students received an hourly credit to "buy" any items they were interested in for helping collect and remove the items left behind as University of Oregon students recently moved out of residence halls. Items not "bought" by the high school students were donated to the Springfield Public Schools Family Resource Centers.
Hartwick College Increases Recycling Efforts
Student leaders, staff, faculty and administrators are collaborating to raise awareness and improve recycling rates on campus with projects including the installation of clear, consistent recycling labeling; the addition of new recycling bins throughout campus; and Zero-Sort Recycling program outreach.
U California Santa Cruz Dorms Go Paper Towel-Free
In support of zero waste goals for 2020, paper towels will no longer be provided for drying hands in shared residential restrooms on campus. Thirty-four percent of the waste coming out of the residence halls is paper towels. Students will be asked to bring a supply of reusable cloth hand towels to school with them in the fall.
Vassar College Students Keep Unwanted Items from Landfill
Hundreds of pounds of clothing, appliances and other household items left behind as students recently moved out of the dorms were collected, sorted and donated to local nonprofit agencies by the college's SWAPR (Students With a Purpose Recycling) team. Before SWAPR started 13 years ago, the college would deploy 20 extra dumpsters outside the dorms to handle the flood of discarded material at the end of every school year. This year, says a Vassar College Committee on Sustainability intern, they only needed three to four.
Towson U 'Trash-to-Treasure' Event Raises $3K for Sustainability
Staff, faculty, and community members bought items left behind during the student move-out at bargain prices, raising $3,007 for campus sustainability initiatives in areas including environmental education, recycling and renewable energy. Items left after the sale were donated to local charities and electronics were recycled through National Reclamation.
Denison U 'Operation Move Out' Donates Unwanted Student Items
As students recently moved out of the dorms, several local agencies like Big Brothers/Big Sisters and New Beginnings Shelter and Services were invited to the residence halls to look for donated usable items like couches, TVs, coffee makers and refrigerators.
North Carolina State U Recycling Site Diverts 93% Waste
Ninety-three percent of the campus yard waste, scrap metal, wooden pallets, used tires, discarded electronics and more at the university's Dearstyne Roll-off Convenience Site are reused or recycled. The site is part of the university’s goal is to increase the overall diversion rate of campus waste from landfills to 65 percent from the current 50 percent. **
Western Carolina U Adds 75 Recycling Bins to Campus
One of 35 colleges and universities to receive a donation of recycling bins as part of the Alcoa Foundation Recycling Bin Grant Program, the university will now be able to expand its recycling program to athletic facilities, where students reported a need.
U Illinois Chicago Expands Recycling Efforts
(U.S.) The university will install 60 recycling bins around campus and in residence halls. The bins were made possible by a grant from the Alcoa Foundation, in partnership with Keep America Beautiful.
Bowdoin College Athletes Implement Shoe Reuse Program
Bowdoin Green Athletes (BGA) looks to continue its campaign to ingrain sustainability into the athletic culture through a team-by-team strategy and a shoe reuse initiative. As part of the Rerun Shoes initiative, BGA has installed two boxes for students to donate their old, unwanted sneakers. About 200 pounds of shoes have been collected so far.
San Francisco State U Students Monitor Recycling Bins
The Cesar Chavez Student Center has launched a new program that aims to educate students on waste diversion. Ten student volunteers will monitor recycling bins to ensure items are discarded properly. The university’s goal is to reach 100 percent waste diversion by 2020.
U Minnesota Launches Virtual Warehouse
The university has launched a new online exchange to facilitate reuse and waste reduction. Similar to Craigslist or Freecycle, the virtual warehouse allows users to exchange university property without visiting the ReUse warehouse or moving items to a building's dock for pickup.
Ohio U Project Creates Visual Representation of Recycled Plastic
The university’s Campus Recycling has created a visual representation of how quickly recyclable materials can accumulate over the course of one month. The 16-foot high campus sculpture, entitled “It All Adds Up,” is comprised of four weeks’ worth of recycled #1 and #2 plastics collected on campus. The project was created to coincide with the university's RecycleMania efforts.
Dundee U Launches Recycle and Reward Initiative
(U.K.): The university has installed four reverse vending machines that accept bottles and cans as part of the Recycle and Reward initiative. Students and staff will be rewarded for recycling through a variety of incentives including cash, discount vouchers or vouchers for donations to charities.
East Tennessee State U to Receive Recycling Bins
(U.S.): Alcoa Foundation ha partnered with Keep America Beautiful (KAB) and the College and University Recycling Coalition (CURC) to provide 60 recycling bins to the university as part of the Recycling Bin Grant Program.
U Chicago Launches Paperless Payroll
(U.S.): In an effort to reduce paper consumption, Financial Services has implemented a paperless payroll system. This digitization effort increases security and transparency while also reducing the costs of printing, shipping, archiving, and shredding.
U South Carolina Installs Solar Trash Compactors
(U.S.): The facilities department has installed eight BigBelly Solar trash compactors and Smart Belly recycling units at the Russell House University Union. The new compactors replaced 40 trashcans and will serve as a pilot program. The trashcans will be repurposed to offer more recycling cans in other areas of the campus.
Spelman College to Receive 75 Recycling Bins
The college will receive 75 recycling bins as part of the Alcoa Foundation Recycling Bin Grant Program. The program is an effort to help schools boost their recycling results during the eight-week RecycleMania Tournament, and expand their recycling efforts throughout the year.
U Minnesota Morris Launches On-Site Composting
The university has launched an organic waste disposal program as part of its campus-wide sustainability efforts. The initiative was led by a group of students to help avoid a waste hauling fee and create a valuable resource for use in landscaping projects. In the past, all compostable materials were sent off-campus to be incinerated.
Appalachian State U Begins Zero Waste Commitment
The university has launched a zero waste commitment with the goal of diverting 90 percent of all waste from landfill disposal by 2022. As part of this commitment, single stream recycling and mini-bin waste collection initiatives will be implemented. The initiative will also include institutional purchasing decisions that focus on reducing consumption and increasing recycling.
Colorado State U Conducts Waste Audit
Students, faculty and staff have conducted an audit of trash gathered from the university’s dorms and dining halls as part of RecycleMania. Volunteers separated items to recycle, compost or discard. Results from the same audit conducted last year found that 26 percent of what was tossed could have been recycled, 36 percent could have been composted and only 38 percent was true trash.
Georgia Tech Housing to Streamline Recycling
The Department of Housing will implement a new single stream recycling system to replace the multi-stream process that is currently in use. Student recycling is expected to increase by 20 percent by the end of the semester.