[Updates sent Jan. 2, 2019]

Good Morning, Pete and Shawn,

I hope your new year is off to a good start. Here are zero waste activities from the past week:

• I drafted updates to the glove recycling page of the iCAP portal and flier and sent them to Morgan for review.
• I cleaned up my spreadsheet where I track glove recycling sites.
• I drafted an SSC report for fall 2018 and sent it to Morgan for review.

Best Regards,

Marya Ryan

Hi Pete and Shawn—

Last week was quiet with regard to zero waste activities.

Best regards,

Marya Ryan

Morgan White sent the following message to labs participating in the glove recycling program on Dec. 13, 2018:

Hello Glove Recycling Contacts,

Thank you for your support of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) waste reduction efforts, in connection with the Kimberly-Clark Professionals RightCycle program.  We are very appreciative of the initiative and time you all have dedicated to glove recycling to help reduce landfill waste from the University of Illinois over the past three years. I’m also emailing the people who have expressed interest in joining the program, so you are aware of these changes.

I am writing to let you know that we will halt glove recycling for research labs and teaching labs on campus, as of the end of this calendar year.  The RightCycle program is only intended for recycling non-hazardous materials, and the majority of our labs are using gloves as protection against hazards or potential hazards.  Therefore, we will continue to participate in RightCycle only with gloves used for food service, starting in 2019.  If you are collecting gloves to recycle from a lab on campus, please do not drop off gloves and do not ship them to Kimberly-Clark after December 31, 2018.

If you and your colleagues in research and teaching labs would like to continue actively supporting campus sustainability, please join the Certified Green Lab Program at https://go.illinois.edu/greenlab, coordinated through the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE).

Please let me know if you have any questions about glove recycling, and have a happy holiday season.

Thanks,

Morgan

Hi Pete and Shawn--

Zero waste activities last week were

• Morgan White asked me to help her collect information to create a business case for styrofoam recycling. Pete, you kindly and promptly sent me some trip/cost information to get started.
• I gathered some historic information about our glove recycling program for a call with staff at Arizona State University. They had reached out to ask about our decision making process when considering Terra Cycle vs. Right Cycle. Morgan and Shantanu filled me in on some of the cost and mission-based considerations, which I shared with the ASU representatives. They shared information about their experience with both Terra Cycle and Right Cycle, so it was a good exchange.

Best regards,

Marya Ryan

Evan De Lucia and Mohamad Attalla approved $15,000 of funding from the Carbon Credit Sales Fund for MSTE (Office of Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education) to make improvements and new coding designs to the iCAP Portal.

An email of approval is attached below.

Hi Pete and Shawn--

Zero waste activities from the past week were as follows:

• I assisted in finding diversion rates for other campuses for a couple of students who had inquired. The AASHE website includes STAR reports from a number of campuses, which include amounts of waste diverted.
• I received email from Jordan Powers, the Fisher representative, about her recruitment of new participants for the glove recycling program. Morgan and I exchanged emails and decided the best course of action is to ensure Jordan is aware that we agreed to postpone recruitment in light of discussions with the Division of Research Safety and to ask her to have the new departments sign up for the program via the web survey we created for that purpose earlier this year. I’ll let DRS know what happened.
• I got information from Morgan and from Shantanu Pai about the glove recycling program in anticipation of a phone call today with Arizona State University’s sustainability coordinator. She is seeking information about our participation in the Kimberly-Clark program to help inform decisions about ASU’s program.

Best regards,

Marya Ryan

Hello Pete and Shawn--

This past week,

• I had emails with the BER students to answer a question about their efforts to identify teaching coordinators for the labs participating in the glove recycling program. We are seeking the information for the Division of Research Safety (DRS) as part of the effort to ensure that biohazards and dangerous chemicals are not inadvertently introduced into the recycling stream.
• Morgan confirmed that she will do additional outreach to Anthropology about the labs/room numbers where they collect gloves. I have a second email out to Veterinary Medicine requesting the same information and also their PI names. These efforts are also part of the information collection for DRS.
• Joey Kreiling expressed an interest in reaching out to the BER students regarding ActGreen's involvement with the Student Sustainability Leadership Council (SSLC). I have emailed him a couple of times for clarification so that I can get him in touch with the BER students, per Morgan's suggestion. I have not heard back from him yet.
• I confirmed with the BER students that we are not yet ready to recruit new participants for the EPS recycling program (they had asked about additonal volunteer opportunites when I met with them the week before last; I said I would check on the status of the styrofoam recycling program).
• I sent Joe Pickowitz an email to see what he has learned about operating costs to run the EPS densifier on campus.

Best regards,

Marya Ryan

Mohamed Attalla and Evan De Lucia approved $32,000 of funding from the Carbon Credit Sales Fund for the Green Restaurant Certification Pilot.

"The requested funds will fully cover a five-year pilot of Green Restaurant Certification for all campus dining facilities and University Catering." -Micah Kenfield (11/8/2018)

An email of approval and the benefits the project will provide is attached below.