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PWR006 Expanded Recycling - Declined

Posted by Meredith Moore on March 8, 2022

Morgan White, Associate Director of F&S for Sustainability, sent the following email, declining PWR006.

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Hello Jen and Meredith,

I am writing this to close the loop on iCAP recommendation from 2015, and for posting on the iCAP Portal about this topic. In 2015, iSEE sent PWR006: Expanded Recycling to the Executive Director of F&S Al Stratman, from what is now the Zero Waste iCAP Team.  The director over the waste transfer station at the time, Carl Wegel, asked the staff to investigate the accuracy of the potential income from expanding the plastics collections.  Tracy Osby and Bart Bartels looked into it, and I was informed that in our local market there could be an increased cost to campus for collecting and recycling these additional plastics, rather than the projected increase of revenue.  Additionally, the existing baler at the Waste Transfer Station was deemed incapable of handling the additional plastics, in its old age condition.  For that reason, this recommendation was denied by F&S, in a discussion with the PWR SWATeam.

On a brighter note, we are currently working on hiring a full time Zero Waste Coordinator, who will be able to pursue this effort further.  We also are grateful to the support of the Student Sustainability Committee, which funded a feasibility study to identify the costs of replacing the current baler.  I have also discussed the funding needs for the new baler with Associate Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives Kim Kidwell and Senior Executive Director of Principal Gifts David Bruns, in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement.

F&S looks forward to continuing our partnership with iSEE to support the implementation of the iCAP 2020 objectives, and we look forward to reducing plastics on campus in the months/years to come.

Thank you,

Morgan

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See PWR006 Expanded Recycling transmittal and iWG assessment here. 

See PWR006 Expanded Recycling recommendation here.