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When the glove recycling storage container is full, Housing Food Stores Operations Manager Michael Olinger contacts Kimberly-Clark. Kimberly-Clark then comes to campus and loads the pallets of gloves into a truck to recycle them.
All,
Last week was a whirlwind of cleaning and reorganizing. On Monday afternoon a large dumpster was dropped off and on Tuesday a bunch of new furniture and cabinets came. The old furniture and cabinets went into the dumpster and the new stuff has been put in its place. On Friday a new big metal work table was dropped off to replace the smaller, broken, and less effective one. Overall, the shop is still in progress but will look a lot better shortly. Unfortunately, on Friday and over the weekend, we got 4 more bike donations, which is counterproductive as far as a clean shop is concerned but they’re good bikes that we can get
In moving some of the computer stuff to the new desk some cables got plugged in incorrectly and this caused a major headache for the IT dept and the Bike Project. A large thanks to Barry and the two guys from F&S IT who helped right the ship.
Despite the continued construction on Pennsylvania, we were jam-packed for an hour on Thursday. We still haven’t been so busy as to require the suspension of the Free Visit policy. I’ll gauge how busy it is today and go from there.
Last week I ordered the lights for LTN 2018. They should be here Wednesday.
This week I will finish up the dumpster-required work and spiffy up some more. We’re starting to sell bikes on the regular and thusly stock is starting to dwindle (this is good!) so I’ll finish up a few more shop builds this week, too.
The numbers:
Visitors: 65
Sales: $1,056.25
Memberships: 7 for $210
Bikes (refurb): 3 for $455
Tire/tubes: 12 for $73
Thanks!
Jake Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager
The final report submitted to the Student Sustainability Committee for the Freezer Challenge project. UIUC took first place in the 2018 International Laboratory Freezer Challenge Academic Organization category.
The Spring 2018 semesterly report for the aquaponics demonstration submitted to the Student Sustainability Committee.
Hi Pete and Shawn—
Zero-waste activity this past week consisted of
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
Spring 2018 semesterly report submitted to the Student Sustainability Committee on behalf of the 'CornCrete' project.
All, last week seemed to pick up towards the end of the week. We had to herd people out of the shop at 5:30. Even with the street closure, people are managing to find us. I’ve taken the sandwich board sign off the trike and placed it next to the garage door facing east since most of our traffic is coming from that side nowadays. I’ll reconstruct the trike and start using it again once Pennsylvania is reopened.
This week I’ll be bringing the student staff in during the mornings to help clean and purge since we’ll be getting a pan dumpster and some new furniture. The disruption won’t affect open hours, as most of the cleaning will be in the back end of the shop anyway. We’ve got a dumpster here until Friday, so the staff and I should be able to concentrate all the cleaning to the mornings and have things back to functional order in time for open hours.
I think either this week or next I will be suspending First Visit Free. This past week it was already affecting usage/stand availability for members. I’ll put a bulletin on the Bike Project website alerting people to that fact when I institute it.
The numbers:
Visitors: 79
Sales: $468.00
Memberships: 2 for $60.
Bikes (Refurb): 1 for $170
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $56
Tire/tubes: 10 for $50
Thanks!
Hi Pete and Shawn—
[This past week, there were] just a few emails here and there.
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
Spring 2018 semesterly report submitted to the Student Sustainability Committee for the Solar at the Idea Garden project.
Due to the complexity of this project, F&S recommended conducting a feasibility study before installation. It is estiamted to cost approximately $10K and take about one month to complete.
All, had a strong and busy finish to the end of last week. I think the student population is making its way back in advance of the new academic year.
Last week I ordered the light sets for Light The Night, although a snag has just been brought to my attention. I spoke to the customer service representative at Dero on Friday and beyond his giddy reaction to the squirrel problem, he told me that they have on-order a new all-metal pump head that will withstand all the abuse (and squirrels) that our campus can muster.
This week is a TBP Members’ Meeting. I’ll also work on resolving the issue with the Light The Night order, scrap more bikes in advance of the Big Clean as well as begin rounding up some volunteers to help out for the event.
The numbers:
Visitors: 87
Memberships: 5 for $150
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $330
Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $105
Tire/tubes: 6 for $29
Sincerely,
Jake Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager
Several locations that have been participating in glove recycling were missing from the project locations map. Marya Ryan added them on July 29. They are Florida Avenue Residence Halls, Ikenberry Commons, Illinois Street Residence Halls, Lincoln Avenue Residence Halls, and Pennsylvania Avenue Residence Halls.
Hi Pete and Shawn—
Here are last week’s updates on zero-waste activities:
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
La Casa Cultural Latina is joining the glove recycling program. As of July 2018, they are in the process of obtaining a bin for collection at their site. The site has been added to the project locations map.
A web form is now available for departments to use when signing up to participate in the glove recycling program. Program participation instructions on the iCAP web page for the program have been updated to include the link. The form is to be used instead of emailing the zero-waste coordinator directly.
The location to drop off gloves at the Physical Plant Services Building (PPSB) changed in the summer of 2018. The map showing the location was updated accordingly. It is still at PPSB but in a slightly different location there.
In July 2018, BER student volunteers identified contacts for about 15 departments that purchase significant quantities of nitrile gloves but do not currenty participate in the glove recycling program. In the fall, volunteers will follow up with the contacts to inquire about interest in participation.
All, last week was slow, for the most part. Felt like we got a lot of donations. Trained a new staffer, waiting on clearance to train one more. Still building and scrapping bikes on the regular. My checklist sheet for shop builds is working—for the most part. There are still detail things that the staff don’t really notice, a slack chain on a single-speed for example, or cable ends are too long. Overall, I think it’s helping but the details matter and very much can still result in an unsafe bicycle. I’ll look at revising it a bit this w eek.
This will be Dennis’s last week here (I think, will check on this). He has been a great staffer and we’ll miss him!
This week I will begin prep for our big clean out/purge at the beginning of August. I’ll poll the staff for availability and iron out the details for how many days we’ll be closed (best-case scenario: one day). We’ll begin August 6th. We’ll be pulling all the bikes out and moving furniture around to give a solid, deep clean, and toss out the junk that has accumulated. We haven’t ever done a big clean like this during my tenure here and it’s wholly overdue. While we might lose a day or two of open hours, the end result will be a better functioning and cleaner/easier to navigate space.
This week I will also be getting in touch with Lexco about ordering PB Blinky lights for LTN 2018!
Numbers:
Visitors: 75
Sales: $724
Memberships: 7 for $210
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $220
Tire/tubes: 11 for $88
The University has been approached many times by students and others about the possibility of implementing a bike sharing program, and the 2010 iCAP included a goal to create a bike sharing program by 2012.
The University conducted a feasibility study in 2011 and 2012 (attached below) to assess whether the campus could truly sustain a bicycle sharing program. That study recommended the Campus Bike Plan be implemented first, in order to improve the conditions of bicycle infrastructure across campus, before a public bike sharing system be considered. In Fall 2013, it was decided that there have been improvements made on the bicycle network so bike sharing was reopened for discussion. A graduate student was hired to work with departments in trying to implement a bike share within the University, while creating discussion within the local community about a community wide system.
In addition, the study also suggests a few interim programs to serve known needs of providing bicycles to University employees for work-related trips on an hourly basis, and providing bikes to visitors, conferences and classes for daily rentals for group tours, etc. The University is working to develop both of these programs now, and will continue to explore options for making communal bicycles available to students and potentially to the general public.
Background
Although the community bike sharing costs too much, which means community bike sharing is not feasible in the recent years; some departments have developed their own bike sharing programs, staffs and students can rent a bike daily, monthly, even yearly. It is really convenient and increases the usage rate of bike around the campus. Now, a promotional campaign is being conducted to encourage more departments to participate, with the goal of increasing the number of departmental shared bikes from the current level of 15 to a goal of 60 by FY20. Additionally, campus still continue to work with community partners to explore the implementation of a communitywide public bike-sharing program.
Minnesota has a nice ride which sharing bike among all people. It started from 2012 and since 2014, the cumulative trip exceeds 500,000 per year, whose net assets are $62,469 in 2015, which means with the contract, sponsor and rental fee, there is not much economic stress. Maybe in the next several years, it will work for us, too.
