Arizona State U Launches Composting Program
In celebration of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Food Recovery Challenge, the university has introduced composting at two dining halls on campus. Food-service workers have begun using “Green Bins” to compost all food and paper food-service items. The university will expand its composting efforts through its Green Bin program beginning in January 2013 to include students, faculty and staff.
Marquette U Launches Improved Composting Program
The university’s sustainability department is launching an improved composting program through a new partnership with Growing Power, a local urban-farming initiative. Five campus eateries will participate in the composting initiative.
U Maryland to Require Construction Waste Recycling
The university has announced plans to require departments to recycle construction and demolition waste from campus projects starting in winter 2013. Construction and demolition waste materials will be collected and transported to different processors depending on the material type. Campus construction is estimated to generate about 300 to 800 tons of recyclable waste per year.
Wellesley College Launches Composting Program
The college’s Office of Sustainability has partnered with Wellesley Fresh to launch a new compost project in the dining halls. The joint initiative will first address waste generated in food preparation, and will later tackle post-consumer food waste.
Kean U Composting Project Reaches Milestone
(U.S.): In less than a year, the university’s composting operation has diverted 100 tons of food scraps away from landfills and incinerators. The compost has been used throughout the campus, including a university farm that supplies fresh produce to a campus cafeteria and restaurant.
College of Charleston Hosts Recycling Competition
The college increased recycling and reduced trash dumped in the landfill by 13 percent during a three-week competition that ran from late September to mid-October. The campus-wide “RecycleMania” was hosted and organized by the Office of Sustainability and was modeled after the national RecycleMania competition.
Bloomsburg U Debuts Recycling Units
The university has unveiled 16 outdoor recycling units across campus as part of a new recycling initiative. Forty-eight bins have also been placed in classrooms throughout two buildings.
East Carolina U Recycles Cooking Oil to Fuel Local Buses
Campus Dining Services has begun recycling cooking oil to donate to local schools to use as biodiesel in buses. The university was already recycling its cooking oil to be used as biofuel, but the new program allows the fuel to be used locally without any extra fees for distribution or conversion.
Queen’s U Diverts 45 Percent of Waste from Landfills
The university has diverted 45 percent of its waste from landfills in the past year, improving by three percent from the previous year. The waste diverted falls into several categories, including leaf and yard waste, electronic waste, organics, furniture, scrap metal, and book recycling. The Sustainability Office is developing an online tool to provide information on recycling and responsible disposal on campus.
U Detroit Mercy Pilots Recycling Program
The university has installed recycling bins in common areas of every floor in every residence hall after several semesters of students campaigned for a campus-recycling program.
Louisiana State U Receives Recycling Grant
(U.S.): The university has received a $10,000 grant that will go toward purchasing 1,000 recycling bins to boost recycling efforts during campus events. Campus Recycling also purchased a recycling dumpster to provide a convenient drop-off site for off-campus students.
Berea College Installs Solar Powered Compactors
The installation of three solar powered trash compactors will allow the college to remove 40 dumpsters. Instead of collecting waste every three to five days from traditional dumpsters, compacted waste can be hauled away every three to four weeks. Waste is weighed and recorded in the unit, allowing the college to explore further ways to reduce and eliminate waste.
Earlham College Introduces Single Stream Recycling
In an effort to make campus recycling more convenient, the college has adopted a new co-mingling recycling program. The college has also hired six students to manage the pick-up of outdoor recycling bins and help educate the campus about recycling through improved signage and bin locations.
Princeton U Unveils New Trash Labels to Encourage Recycling
In an effort to change recycling behavior, Building Services have replaced “Trash” labels on disposal bins with “Landfill” labels. The university hopes the change in labels will encourage students to think more carefully about their consumption choices. Building Services, the Office of Sustainability and Green Leaders will be gauging the results of this program and its potential effects on disposal over the next few months.
U Washington Turns Unwanted Items into Social Change
The university has made an effort to collect and donate reusable items that might otherwise go to the landfill. Last spring, the university’s Student Cleanup, Recycle and Moveout program donated 30 boxes of books to Better World Books, an organization that raises funds for literacy by selling used books online. Earlier this year, UW Recycling donated 1,540 pounds of food to the University District Food Bank; over 8,000 pounds of clothing to Northwest Center; 2,000 pounds of electronics to InterConnection; and 980 pounds of toiletries and emergency kit backpacks to Real Change.
U Wisconsin Madison Athletics Participates in Waste Recycling
The Athletic Department has partnered with the Office of Sustainability to create the Be the WE (Waste Eliminator) Program. The program uses student volunteers to serve as recycling ambassadors on football game days to help educate fans about recycling and assist the UW Facilities Department in its recycling efforts. Through the first three home games, the university has recycled 18,920 pounds of plastic and cardboard.
John Brown U Achieves Zero Waste
The university has become a zero-landfill institution. Recyclable materials, representing about 50 percent of the university’s trash, are sorted and sent to local recyclers. Waste that cannot be recycled is compacted and converted into energy via emissions-free incineration. Food waste is sent to hog farms.
U Wisconsin Green Bay Reuses Plastic Bottles In Place of Soil
A recently announced educational project involves a student services plaza, currently under construction, and enormous decorative planters. The plants will not require a lot of soil to thrive and rather than paying for unneeded soil, sustainability and facilities management teams will reuse capped plastic bottles collected from recycling bins on campus. The bottles will add the necessary volume and serve as a reminder of what happens when bottles end up in the landfill.
Bucknell U Switches to Single Stream Recycling
(U.S.): The new system is expected to increase recycling rates from 20 percent to 60 percent. The university also plans to add two solar-powered compactors outside the student center.
Cal Poly Pomona Establishes Composting Program
(U.S.): The campus’ Dining Services has begun composting, diverting about 10 yards of waste a week from the landfill. Food scraps are collected and taken to a facility that produces nutrient-rich soil that is sold to local farmers and residents.
St. Agnes College to Launch Recycling
(India): The college has announced plans to create a paper recycling unit on campus to create solid waste management awareness. The college also plans to sell notebooks made from the recycled paper and the money will be used for conducting awareness programs on solid waste management in rural areas of the state.
U Massachusetts Amherst Initiates Single Stream Recycling
(U.S.): In an effort to increase the recycling rate on campus, the university has launched a no-sort system. The system will also result in long-term economic efficiency by allowing the Office of Waste Management to make one pass with its trucks around the campus per week instead of two.
U Michigan Installs Water Refill Stations
(U.S.): Through a collaboration among the Office of Campus Sustainability, Central Student Government, Construction Services and other campus units, more than 100 drinking fountains have been equipped with a bottle refill device. Students helped guide the university’s decision on where to install the refill stations through a survey. This fall, the university also implemented the Planet Blue Water Bottle Initiative. The three-year program will supply all first-year undergraduates with a reusable water bottle when they arrive on campus.
Queen’s U Bans Bottled Water
Bottled water will no longer be available in vending machines, retail outlets or at catered events in an effort to reduce 98,000 plastic bottles that go through the university’s waste and recycling system each year. The university has installed nearly 60 water bottle refilling stations to encourage the campus community to use refillable bottles.
U Southern California Launches Green Tailgating Programs
The Office of Sustainability, Facilities Management Services and USC Athletics have partnered to minimize the waste created by tailgaters at football games. About 75 student volunteers from campus organizations will spread out at each home game to educate tailgaters about recycling and strategies for minimizing waste. Volunteers will also be stationed at new recycling and compost bins.
RIT Announces Bottled Water Reduction Policy
Departments and campus groups will no longer be allowed to use university funds to purchase single-serving bottles of water. In addition, hydration stations will be installed in all future construction and major renovation projects. The institute's National Technical Institute for the Deaf has recently installed two stations.
Washington U St. Louis Launches Composting Pilot
The Office of Sustainability and Facilities Planning & Management have partnered to increase composting opportunities through pilot programs with schools and departments across the Danforth campus. Through the new initiative, the university's waste is collected for composting and the finished product is sold to local landscaping companies who use it as a soil additive that the university then buys back for use in campus landscaping.
Indiana U-Purdue U Indianapolis Initiates Single Stream Recycling
The Office of Sustainability has launched a new single-stream recycling initiative to boost recycling among the 812 students in campus apartments. The university received a grant from Keep America Beautiful and The Coca-Cola Foundation for 305 recycling bins.
American U Retail Stores Eliminate Plastic Bags
(U.S.): The university has replaced plastic bags with a selection of reusable canvas totes and paper bags at several campus retail locations. The Subway store on campus will also introduce adhesive labels as a means of securing sandwich wrappers, eliminating the need for bags.
U Florida Performs Green Waste Audit
(U.S.): To help achieve its goal of zero waste by 2015, the university’s Office of Sustainability has embarked on a baseline audit to identify and prioritize areas for improvement. Students, faculty and staff will fill out a checklist and record the amounts of energy, water, waste and food they conserve this fall.
U Memphis Constructs Outdoor Recycling Center
(U.S.): In an effort to engage students and provide a place to hang out, the new recycling site features benches, wireless Internet, and a wall constructed from recycled broken stones. The sustainable campus fee provided funding for the project.
Babson College Reduces Student Move-Out Waste
Through a new Green Move Out initiative that urges students to recycle, reuse and donate, the college has reduced the overall waste associated with end-of-the-year student moving by 29 percent. All donations and recyclables were distributed to local nonprofits.
U Massachusetts Lowell Increases Recycling Rate by Nearly 17%
With 54.5 percent of on-campus solid waste recycled in fiscal year 2011, the university has announced a 16.7 percent increase in campus recycling efforts over the previous year. The university attributes the improvement to a campus-wide campaign to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions that includes a Zero-Sort program.
U Washington Introduces Outdoor Waste Collection Kiosks
The university has installed automated kiosks to replace existing garbage and recycling cans as part of a pilot program. Powered by the sun, the kiosks consist of three containers for sorting waste – composting, recycling and garbage – each of which is equipped with a sensor that regularly measures the mass of material inside. In the first month of use, the total volume of waste collected was 42 percent compostable. The remaining volume was 38 percent recyclable and only 20 percent actual garbage. Due to the success of the pilot project, additional kiosks will be installed this fall.
Harvard U Goes Campus-wide with Styrofoam Recycling
After a successful plastic foam recycling pilot program in the campus research laboratories, the university has announced plans to expand plastic foam recycling to the entire campus. The university is working with its recycling vendor to recycle plastic foam waste containers into new products like picture frames and architectural molding.
U Oregon Students Start Campus Shoe Recycling Program
A group of students from the Lundquist College of Business’ Center for Sustainable Business Practices and the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center have launched a shoe recycling drive program that debuted during the Olympic Trials taking place on campus. "A Step in the Right Direction" sorts selected shoes based on their condition; intact shoes are donated to those in need while worn-out shoes are sent to the Nike Reuse-a-Shoe program where they are used in sports equipment, playground floors and other materials. After the trials, collection boxes will remain on campus indefinitely.
Coastal Carolina U Hosts Campus Salvage Sale
The university’s annual yard sale, organized by the Community and Campus Sustainability Initiative, has raised $2,173 for its Student Green Fee. Items that were not sold were donated to local nonprofits.
Swarthmore College 'Trash 2 Treasure' Breaks Revenue Record
The college’s annual charity-driven yard sale has set a new record by raising more than $26,000 for the United Way of Southeast Delaware County. Shoppers rescued a total of 13.5 tons of goods from landfills this year, including more than 1,000 books, 876 pairs of shoes, 32 rugs, 12 printers and 126 mini-refrigerators.
U California Berkeley Signs Up for Plastic Disclosure Project
The university has embraced the Plastic Disclosure Project, an international initiative that uses the concept of a plastic footprint as a way of stimulating change in the way the world deals with this resource. Campus Recycling and Refuse Services, in partnership with the Office of Sustainability, will start with a campus audit to quantify its plastic use. The campus will then involve faculty, staff and students in strategies for reducing its plastic waste.
