From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>

Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2023 7:37 AM
To: B10andFriends@umich.edu
Subject: Waste Affinity Survey & Meeting

Morning Big 10 and Friends,

 

Hope everyone everyone’s semester is wrapping up nicely. A big thank you goes out to everyone who participated in the Waste Survey [redacted] so far. We’ve already found the excel tool has been helpful in considering new initiatives. If you haven't had the chance to add your school's information, please do so at your earliest convenience.

If you’re interested in reviewing the waste results together, fill out this When2Meet [redacted] by Wednesday, May 10th.

 

Looking forward to catching up and discussing the findings with all of you!

 

Mary, Tony, and the survey subgroup

 

Mary Leciejewski, MS
Zero Waste Manager

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
(O) 614.292.3637
fod.osu.edu/sustainability

 

 

From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2023 6:52 AM
To: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Hi Dominika,

 

Thanks for the nudge. I just had an email exchange with Tony, and we've decided to send out an email to find a time to review results, as well as to encourage everyone who hasn’t yet to complete the survey. We'll have to work with the responses we get, and I know our group has already found the results useful. This is a good litmus test for gauging people's availability for benchmarking surveys in the future.

 

Hope everyone is making it through the tsunami that is move-out! I am continually shocked at the amount of material going to waste this time of year.

 

Mary Leciejewski, MS

Zero Waste Manager

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
(O) 614.292.3637
fod.osu.edu/sustainability

 

 

 

From: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2023 1:09 PM
To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu
Subject: Re: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Hello all,

 

Just to briefly reintroduce myself, I am an intern working with Daphne on this waste management survey. I'd like to thank you all for the contributions that you have made for this initiative; it has been very exciting witnessing the collaboration and ideas that have been taking place. Given that we have some responses, do you believe that we have enough information to move forward to the analysis phase of the project? As of today, we are still awaiting responses from nine universities for the general questions and fourteen universities for their diversion rate methodologies.

 

Thank you,

DOMINIKA P. SZAL (she/her)

Waste Management Intern

(217) 333-9191 | dszal2@illinois.edu

Facilities & Services | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 

Please consider the environment before printing out an email. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.

From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2023 06:09
To: Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu <alisonlr@umich.edu>; nberg@umich.edu <nberg@umich.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I will get the survey out later today! Mary

 

Mary Leciejewski
Zero Waste Manager

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
(O) 614.292.3637
fod.osu.edu/sustainability

 

 

 

 

From: Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2023 1:44 PM
To: Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Hi, all. I added a few clarifying comments to the Diversion Rate Methodology sheet. The comments are on cells: Precious Metals, Yard Waste, Recycled Batteries, Recycled Vehicles, and Surplus Donate Items. I also added a few more streams we

Hi, all.

 

I added a few clarifying comments to the Diversion Rate Methodology sheet. The comments are on cells: Precious Metals, Yard Waste, Recycled Batteries, Recycled Vehicles, and Surplus Donate Items.

I also added a few more streams we track that were not on the list. Those cells are filled with yellow. Feel free to remove if they don’t make sense. For the added Surplus Sold Items stream, it will be dependent on the answer to the comment on Surplus Donated Items.

 

Thank you!

 

Patrick T. Brown | He/Him
Sustainability Coordinator | Campus Planning, Architecture and Sustainability

 

m: 219-677-6330

Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

 

 

From: Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2023 9:38 AM
To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Thanks Daphne.  Mary actually made that draft (thank you Mary!) and Patrick and I had a few minor edits to add.  Hopefully that can be completed today or tomorrow and back to you for review.  We will definitely include the idea of the “other – list please” being added.

 

Thanks again,

Tony

 

From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2023 8:10 PM
To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

---- External Email: Use caution with attachments, links, or sharing data ----

 

Thanks for the feedback, Daphne.

 

Once we have the go-ahead from Tony, I will send to the larger affinity group.

 

Excited to see all the results!

 

Mary

 

Mary Leciejewski
Zero Waste Manager

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
(O) 614.292.3637
fod.osu.edu/sustainability

 

 

 

 

From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2023 4:33 PM
To: Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Hi Tony, I took a look at the new tab for diversion materials and think it looks great. There was a comment made asking about what to do if a school has a material they include in the rate that isn’t listed on the sheet, so I added a “Other

 

Hi Tony,

 

I took a look at the new tab for diversion materials and think it looks great. There was a comment made asking about what to do if a school has a material they include in the rate that isn’t listed on the sheet, so I added a “Other – please list” column for that purpose.

 

Otherwise, I am happy with the survey and would call it good! Thanks so much for the assistance.

 

Thank you,

 

Daphne

 

Daphne Hulse (she/her)
Zero Waste Coordinator
Facilities & Services | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
+1 (217) 333-7550 | dlhulse2@illinois.edu
 


Please consider the environment before printing an email. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.

 

 

 

From: Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2023 8:05 AM
To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Thanks Daphne.  We will get back to you ASAP!

 

From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2023 10:19 AM
To: Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

---- External Email: Use caution with attachments, links, or sharing data ----

 

Hi Tony,

 

Thanks for the update! We are appreciative of the feedback you and OSU have provided and are happy to incorporate it. I think the suggestion to add a tab for diversion rate materials is a great one, and we would appreciate your help with integrating it into the survey!

 

Thank you,

Daphne

 

From: Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2023 12:55 PM
To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Hi Daphne,  Mary and I met to discuss the Waste Affinity Group topics and we are hoping to be able to focus in on the survey you have developed.  Once the document is ready to share, we are happy to help send it to the group, and then we can remind folks to complete it at the February BTAF Meeting (exact date TBD).  We are anticipating not having a Waste Affinity Meeting prior to the full BTAF Meeting in February, but if this group needs to get together, just let me know and I would be happy to schedule. 

 

In terms of finishing the survey, it appears that you have largely incorporated all the recommendations, thank you!  There is one modification that I wanted to validate with you that our group has offered to make:  a separate tab in the same spreadsheet where the answers for cell AH Materials included in your diversion rate can be put into its own grid and easier to compare school to school.  If you are good with this idea, we will try to complete this next week and send it back. 

 

Thank you,

Tony

 

From: Anthony Gillund
Sent: Friday, January 6, 2023 12:42 PM
To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Hi Daphne, we just had a meeting today with our local waste district and one of the questions that came up is if there are institutions that have found methods to eliminate the plastic bags from the recycling stream.  I thought some institutions do this (e.g. breaking bags of recycling into the recycling dumpster but tossing the bag into the trash).  If you think it is beneficial, perhaps this is another item to add to the survey.

 

Thanks again,

Tony

 

From: Anthony Gillund
Sent: Friday, January 6, 2023 8:51 AM
To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Hi Daphne, great survey and I agree with Mary it is very comprehensive!  Patrick and I reviewed the document we came up with a few recommendations for your consideration:

1. It might be beneficial to add another question after cell G3 that asks if there are secondary waste goals.
2. Cell K3 was a little confusing trying to determine what was meant by ‘Benchmark Year’…. Is this supposed to say ‘Baseline Year’ instead? 
3. For Cell AG3, we are recommending that a separate tab in the same spreadsheet where the answers can be put into its own grid and easier to compare school to school.  For instance, I found it very interesting to see UIUC include tires but not surplus material, and it would be interesting to see how many folks include tire recycling/repurposing.  Patrick is going to take a 1st stab at creating this for your review.  
4. In the Waste Metric Tracking section, would it be possible to add a few questions around accounting for avoided waste?  Take-back programs would be a prime example of this… for instance, if a university handles furniture whether by diverting it or landfilling it, but then works with a manufacturer on a take-back program, do you get to count that material as diverted?  I am not sure of the best way to ask this question(s)… maybe it should be integrated with the matrix developed as part of bullet #2? 
5. The organics section might benefit by clarification on what should be included.  We interpreted it as more than just food scraps and included animal bedding and landscape debris in our answer, but questioned if other items should be included here such as food grease recycling.

 

Thank you again for putting this together.  Looking forward to seeing it once it is all filled out!

Thanks,

 

Tony Gillund 

 

Director of Sustainability

Campus Planning, Architecture, and Sustainability

 

o: 765-494-3911 | agillund@purdue.edu

 

 

 

From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 4, 2023 8:26 AM
To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

---- External Email: Use caution with attachments, links, or sharing data ----

 

Daphne,

 

Thanks for reopening the conversation and putting this together. This survey looks comprehensive. We’re excited for the results!

 

Here’s our quick feedback:

• For “Waste Reduction Goal” section, add question asking if school has formal, published waste plan and request link.
• For D5, we usually count interns as a 3:1 FTEs. Might be useful to make this clear or to have a separate column for number of FTE’s vs. number of interns.
• For the Surplus category, I’d be interested to learn if other schools have internal reuse or external donation programs to nonprofits. (Our Surplus group has mentioned some legal/logistical issues with donation…)

 

We can make these edits directly in the survey but didn’t want to make changes without giving you a heads up/getting sign off from the group.

 

Once the other folks on the chain provide feedback, we can help disseminate to the larger BTAF group. When the results are in, it’d be a perfect intern project to assemble results in a slide show and do some data visualization. Happy to donate our intern time towards that task.

 

Best, Mary

 

Mary Leciejewski
Zero Waste Manager

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
(O) 614.292.3637
fod.osu.edu/sustainability

 

 

 

From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 3, 2023 5:07 PM
To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; agillund@purdue.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Hi all, Happy New Year - I hope you enjoyed a nice holiday break! Dominika and I wanted to re-open the conversation on the BTAF waste survey. The questions are ready for your review/input when you have a chance J Mary & Tony, we are happy

 

Hi all,

 

Happy New Year - I hope you enjoyed a nice holiday break! Dominika and I wanted to re-open the conversation on the BTAF waste survey [redacted]. The questions are ready for your review/input when you have a chance J

 

Mary & Tony, we are happy to coordinate with you both on getting this spreadsheet out to the schools when everything is finalized.

 

Thank you,

Daphne

 

Daphne Hulse (she/her)
Zero Waste Coordinator
Facilities & Services | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
+1 (217) 333-7550 | dlhulse2@illinois.edu
 


Please consider the environment before printing an email. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.

 

 

 

From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2022 9:43 AM
To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; agillund@purdue.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Thank you, Mary! We’ve got all our original survey questions inputted now and are working to finalize questions on other topics such as sustainable procurement and organic waste, which we didn’t previously include.

 

If you all have an opportunity to take a look and provide feedback, that would be appreciated!

Thank you,

Daphne

 

 

Daphne Hulse (she/her)
Zero Waste Coordinator
Facilities & Services | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
+1 (217) 333-7550 | dlhulse2@illinois.edu
 


Please consider the environment before printing an email. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.

 

 

 

From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2022 8:12 AM
To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; agillund@purdue.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

 

Hi everyone,

 

Hope everyone had a nice holiday.

 

Just want to give a shout out to Daphne and her team for uploading the survey onto the google drive in a spreadsheet format. The benchmarking tool is looking pretty robust. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the google drive, here’s the link [redacted].

 

Aside from adding additional relevant survey fields and filling in our school’s data, is there anything else we need to do to provide feedback before we take this to the larger BTAF group?

 

Thanks, Mary

 

Mary Leciejewski
Zero Waste Manager

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
(O) 614.292.3637
fod.osu.edu/sustainability

 

 

 

-----Original Appointment-----
From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2022 3:15 PM
To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren; alisonlr@umich.edu; Leciejewski, Mary; agillund@purdue.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja
Subject: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey
When: Friday, November 11, 2022 11:00 AM-12:00 PM (UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada).
Where: https://illinois.zoom.us/j/83465397844?pwd=K0dHcWlkaXExOTQyUDdrN3J6VXhVUT09

 

Daphne Hulse (she/her) is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Join Zoom Meeting https: //illinois. zoom. us/j/83465397844?pwd=K0dHcWlkaXExOTQyUDdrN3J6VXhVUT09 Meeting ID: 834 6539 7844 Password: 337564 ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍

 

Daphne Hulse (she/her) is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
 

EPA Webinar Report by UIUC Facilities & Services Waste Management Intern, Shreya Mahajan. 

How can students support waste management on campus?

https://dailyillini.com/life_and_culture-stories/2023/03/17/students-was...

By Lily Perez, Contributing Writer
March 17, 2023

Have you ever placed something in a recycling bin and wondered what happens next? Does it actually get recycled, or does it just get tossed in the landfill without ever being sorted out?

Students said it can be hard to be committed to sustainability when resources to do so are not always clear.

Adeline Hoegberg, junior in FAA, said she does not have a lot of knowledge about where the trash on campus is taken or how big of a difference the University is making with their waste management systems.

“I’ve heard that all of the recycling would just end up in the normal trash,” Hoegberg said.

The Waste Transfer Station in Champaign filters out around 30% of the trash that comes in, but still sends around 50 pounds to the landfill each day. This is not taking into account busier times like holidays and move-in days for students.

The Waste Transfer Station is located just off of St. Mary’s Road in Champaign and takes in trash from all various places on campus. This includes instructional facilities, University Housing, Illini Union and the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.

Daphne Hulse works as the Facilities & Services zero waste coordinator, a new position focused on decreasing the amount of waste that goes through the University. Hulse works on various outreach projects, including hosting tours of the Waste Transfer Station.

“These tours are a really unique opportunity to illuminate to the broader campus community what goes on after you put something in the bin,” Hulse said.

Adam Soper, senior in FAA, recalled seeing several recycling places on campus but, like many other students, hasn’t heard of the Waste Transfer Station on campus.

“I know all the dorms have dedicated recycling bins,” Soper said. “But I’m not necessarily sure where those get dumped to.”

Another program that Hulse is facilitating in collaboration with Coca-Cola and the DIA is the “Fighting Illini, Fighting Waste” campaign. This campaign has students volunteer at basketball games to encourage recycling at sporting events. The last zero waste basketball game was March 2 and had 100 volunteers.

“(We’re) creating that general awareness for sustainability in an audience with not just students but townies, out of state folks and athletic rivals,” Hulse said.

Despite these programs, it can be hard for students to recycle on campus and even more so on their own where businesses and residencies don’t provide recycling services. Along with a lack of opportunity, some students feel that recycling doesn’t have a huge impact.

“I’m under the strong feeling that you can’t solely rely on us recycling,” Hoegberg said. “It’s more about the corporations if you really want to fix things.”

Soper said he would most likely not see discernible difference in a world without recycling.

“It wouldn’t be a whole lot different because the recycling practices aren’t widespread enough to be making a huge impact on the scale that we’d be able to really see,” Soper said.

Hulse recognizes that sustainability can seem isolating at times but encourages students to join organizations and communities that bring collective action. She highlighted the RSO Project4Less, whose members package leftover food in good condition and ship it out to food assistance programs in the surrounding area.

“The human connection component of climate change is so important,” Hulse said. “I think we often feel stuck by ‘what can I do as an individual’ in this global planetary crisis.”

Aside from joining sustainability-focused communities, Hulse also recommends learning what people can about what’s happening in the community and leading by example.  

“We know reduce, reuse, recycle. But what about at the start of all of that, refuse,” Hulse said. “What could you refuse in your day-to-day life and start small. For example, I know students really enjoy coffee and many, many, many places around campus will take your reusable cup.”

Hulse was particularly inspired by her mother who showed her that small habits, like using reusable bags at the grocery store, can make a big change. Hulse encourages students to look for that positive influence around them and wants students to be that influence in their own sustainability journey.

“A community that is pursuing zero waste imperfectly is far better than a few individuals doing it perfectly,” Hulse said.

lilygp2@dailyillini.com

 

Good morning BTAF,

 Hope everyone’s year is off to a good start!

At the last BTAF Waste Affinity group meeting in October, the group members shared many exciting initiatives and programs related to recycling and waste diversion. Over the past few months, a working group has developed a comprehensive benchmarking survey to facilitate knowledge sharing and to organize program information. So, now we need your participation in the Waste Survey [redacted].

 At the suggestion of Nicole Berg, a google spreadsheet format was chosen for ease of use, as well as the ability to update the survey each year. In the link, you’ll find two tabs on the survey:

1. Waste Survey: Broad swath of questions related to Zero Waste and Recycling, including strategic planning, outreach, waste management operational processes, waste metric tracking, procurement, athletics, organics, medicine/research labs, and surplus. This an “everything and the kitchen sink” approach to enable comparative analysis.  
2. Diversion Rate Methodology: One question that continues to bubble up from time to time is, “What do you include in your diversion rate?” This survey tab requests that you mark a “x” next to each category that is included as diversion in your annual diversion rate report.   

 Three schools have already filled out the survey, so our hope is that it’s intuitive to follow along and to input your school’s information. If you have any clarifying questions, feel free to shoot me an email. We ask that each school completes the survey by Friday, February 13th.

 Once the data is collected, an intern will compile the data, and we will share the results in another BTAF Waste Affinity Group meeting at a date TBD—probably in March.

 Shout out to the team, including Tony Gillund (Purdue), Patrick Brown (Purdue), Daphne Hulse (Illinois), Dominika Szal (Illinois-intern), Nicole Berg (Michigan), and Alison Richardson (Michigan).

Mary

 

Mary Leciejewski
Zero Waste Manager

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
(O) 614.292.3637
fod.osu.edu/sustainability