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

Hello,

I'm the Carbon Offset Fellow with Second Nature. I would like to check in with someone from UIUC about your participation in the C2P2 program. We are preparing to contract with an accredited third-party verifier to seek verification of all credits between July 1 2020 and Dec 31, 2022, and for the revalidation of UIUC's project crediting period. The cost for this for UIUC is significant and will require site visits by the third-party verifier.  I need confirmation from someone on your team that you do want us to contract these services on your behalf. 

My cell phone number is 828 582 5039. Email is also a good way to reach me. 

Thank you for your attention to this. I look forward to your reply!

Meredith

-------------------------------

Hi Morgan,

Is this something you would like me to assist with?

Thanks,

Jen

Done:

• Removed RSS Feeds from listings (e.g. Project Updates for collection: Geothermal Projects)
  • As a side-benefit, these Feeds seem to have been the cause of some informational warnings about missing db joins at the top of certain listings, which are now fixed:
    • Project Updates by Key Objective listing page (see, e.g. Projects Updates for key objective: 1.0 iCAP 2020 Illinois Climate Action Plan)
    • Project Updates by Place (see, e.g. Projects Updates for place: Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC))
• Q: Can we limit access to menu selection for Projects to only certain users - e.g. iCAP Admins?
  • A: Yes! it turns out we'd already done that :-) iCAP Admins and iCAP Moderators can update the menu system, but iCAP Advocates cannot.
• Implemented new search indexing algorithm to make search less rigid:
  • Will now find different versions of equivalent words (e.g. plurals and singular treated as the same word)
  • Omitting an apostrophe when searching will find versions of that word which include an apostrophe
  • Note: doesn't seem to understand that "bikes" and "bicycles" are equivalent, though - I can look into whether I can add in certain equivalent words. Are there others we'd like to see?

Discussion:

• Discussion item from Stacy:

  • I would like to add to the agenda a brainstorm for ways we might be able to make a Project Page for Sustainability Experiential Learning projects.

     

    This idea is the basis of the Resilience Team economic analysis recommendation that  iWG passed. Members of the iCAP Education team are working with me.

     

    The project is basically like this:

     

    1. A needed project is identified by a community organization (e.g. life cycle analysis of a green technology for a new building),
    2. A Capstone class is identified (Eric Green’s Captstone) interested in experiential learning projects.
    3. A faculty mentor is named (Eric Green or other expert)
    4. Student teams form to work on the experiential learning project during their capstone class.
    5. Students work on the project, learn from it, deliver value to the “community client”

  • Anna Mehl from the Education iCAP Team and I are currently information gathering and brainstorming ways to create a page where we can provide information about future sustainability experiential learning projects.

     

    Some programs that are similar include:

     

    1. https://healthinstitute.illinois.edu/community-impact/community-academic-partnerships/community-academic-scholars
       
    2. https://sustainability.uic.edu/student-experience/sustainability-internship-programs/

  • Those websites are not set up the same way as the iCAP portal. What can we do? What can’t we do? Is the iCAP portal appropriate for this project – should we look for a different home?

  • Outcomes/Decisions:
    1. Has been discussed before, there are challenges to implementing it
    2. Not proceeding with this on iCAP Portal at this time, maybe later?
    3. See Independent Student Projects for an example of a similar attempt on iCAP Portal - see Project Background and associated Project Updates
• Should we show a "last updated" date on the projects?
  • Automatically show last time Project was updated?
  • Add field that is updated intentionally when a project's information has been reviewed & by whom?
  • Add a disclaimer about information being correct at the time it was entered?
• Question about a TODO: "Collections page: Add image upload option". At a previous meeting we had this TODO, but what was the context? Was it to have a thumbnail for each Collection? Or a banner image?
• Should we link to "Take Action" project from homepage?
• Archiving projects
  • Add "Archived" checkbox?
  • Add "Archived" to Visibility options?
  • Add "Archived" to Project Status options? (probably not - this mixes the status of the project itself with whether we still want it to show up on the site)
  • Remove from nested listings, still publicly available?

TODO:

• Projects pages metrics 2-∞ have no labels on Y-axis (e.g. Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts)
• Permissions:
  • Metric Tracking:
    • Add/update: iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, iCAP Advocates
    • Delete: iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, NOT iCAP Advocates
  • Metric Targets:
    • Add/update: iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, NOT iCAP Advocates
    • Delete: iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, NOT iCAP Advocates
• Change iCAP Advocates to iCAP Clerks
• Fancy project layout mockups - keep tweaking #3 to improve contrast
• Discuss metrics
  • Metrics with lots of data
  • Consider how to handle old metrics that no longer track new data. Archive somehow?
  • Fun with math (e.g. combining multiple metrics)
  • Calculated Metrics on Dev site

A representative from the News-Gazette reached out to Steve Breitwieser with questions regarding Abbot Power Plant:

Please also see the attached spreadsheet with data on steam supplied buildings.

Hi Kathy,

Abbott Power Plant generates all district heating and almost 275,000

megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity each year using a high-efficiency

cogeneration process, which simultaneously produces both steam and

electricity. When the campus load for heat is highest during the

winter months, the plant, along with the two utility-scale solar

farms, provides almost all the electricity that the campus needs,

with the remainder coming from wind energy that is imported onto the

campus grid. Throughout the year, Abbott's sustainable cogeneration

process supplies approximately

85 percent of the total energy demand (steam and electricity) for the

Urbana campus, which includes almost 50 percent of the overall electricity usage. The electricity not generated at Abbott, from

 on-site solar arrays, or acquired through a wind power purchase

agreement is purchased through Prairieland Energy, a corporation

solely owned by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. More

information about utilities production is available at https://fs.illinois.edu/services/utilities-energy/production.

 Happy Holidays!

 Steve B.

--------------------------------------------

Hi, Steve. As I'm assembling this week's column, I have several

 follow-up

 questions:

 Can you clarify what's meant by "district heating"?

 Does most of the steam generated by the cogeneration process end up

 heating some of the older buildings on campus? (I spent 20+ years in

 Mumford Hall and remember the sounds the pipes made at certain times of year.)

Any idea of approximately what percentage of the campus' interior spaces are still heated with ssssssteam heat?

I took a look at the website you mentioned, and have a couple of questions

 about that: What does  UES stand for?   And the website says, "During low

campus demand for both heat and air conditioning, Abbott typically

 burns natural gas. During the winter months, when the campus heat load

 is highest, a combination of both coal and natural gas is necessary."

Is that information still accurate? (I thought the coal scrubbers were

no longer in use on campus...?)

If it's not possible to get answers to me this week, that's OK; I can hold the item for next week.

Thank you,

KR

---------------------------------------

 Hi Kathy,

 I'll follow up on these in greater detail when everyone returns next week.

 UES is the acronym for the Utilities & Energy Services division that is within Facilities & Services. District heating is referencing the process used to distribute steam from Abbott to campus facilities through underground pipes.

Steve B.

---------------------------------------

Mike/Dave,

There were a couple of follow of questions to this media inquiry from the NG before the break.  Can you help clarify the highlighted sections by Wednesday with any additional information? For the interior spaces question, let me know if you can explain that more precisely – on our website we say “More than 250 campus buildings use the steam produced at Abbott for their heating.” The UMP also indicates: From discussions with U of I staff, approximately 85% of the campus condensate is returned to APP (if that would be something to note from a process standpoint along with an explanation like below).

Abbott uses gas turbines, natural gas-fired boilers, and coal fired boilers, recovering reject heat from electric generation to help produce steam. The plant pipes steam underground across campus to provide buildings with space heating, domestic hot water, sterilization, and more. Once used, the steam condenses into water and returns to the plant where it is recycled and reused.

I could respond to the fuel item with what we have said previously…

When the campus load for heat is highest during the winter months, natural gas and coal are utilized to meet the significant energy demand. The coal-fired

boilers are also a part of research efforts, primarily related to carbon capture technology. Additionally, maintaining fuel flexibility provides the university operational reliability and the ability to respond to market factors for purchased utilities.

Thanks for helping out with some more detail on this one.

Steve B.

-----------------------------------------

Mark/Dave,

Do you guys or maybe steam distribution know approximately what percentage of campus buildings are still on steam heat?

Thanks

David Hardin

------------------------------

I have not seen a list. We will ask Steam.

When time allows maybe we could add a column to note the steam yes or no. Hmmmmm Elizabeth stated Keith Erickson had a list and she recalls some sort of building database that listed utilities per building such as steam,  electricity from Abbot or Ameren, gas etc. It would be nice to find this.

Dave

---------------------------------

Mike/Frank,

Are you guys aware of the list/database Dave referenced below and if so where it is located?

Thanks

--------------------------------

David,

I would think that EBS would provide a list of building that are served with steam, based on the meters in EBS.

Tony and/or Kate,

Can you clarify/confirm how many buildings on campus are served with steam from EBS?  The email string below indicates that the Util. Master Plant said over 250 buildings are served by steam from Abbott. Is that still the case?

Mike Larson

------------------------------

According to EBS, there are 175 active steam meters. Some buildings have multiple meters so there would be fewer buildings than that.

Thanks,

Kate Brewster

------------------------

Anthony should be able to run a query that will give us an exact number from our last billing cycle.

Regards,

Tony

-----------------------------

As of our last EBS billing the count is 147.  I have attached the file that supports this number for your reference.

Regards,

Tony

------------------------------

Attached is a Transportation Demand Management presentation created for Employee Orientation.

Below is an email exchange between Morgan White and Sarthak Prasad on Sarthak's involvement in employee orientation:

Hi Sarthak,

Can you please provide a short statement here about what you for New Employee Orientation, including slides, topics, and time commitment.  We are looking to increase the F&S presence in new employee orientation, and I shared that you are already involved.

Thanks,

Morgan

-------------------

Hi Morgan,

Please see attached the slides that I use for the IHR New Employee Orientation. It is a 30-45 minute commitment for me per month, including travel time. These orientations are held on the first Monday of every month, and I talk for about 15-20 minutes. The orientations are usually at the Conference Center, but sometimes they have it virtually.

I will be updating the slides for next month’s orientation to include It’s Your MTD and Commuter Program information. I have been attending these since fall 2021.

I had also worked on slides for Sustainability on campus, but you had asked me to wait before you reviewed it. Thank you,

Sarthak