The reasons for the putative decrease in recycling rate include the increase in plastic production, flat change in recycling capacity, and China no longer accepting our recyclables. A Time magazine article further suggests that the estimated 9% recycling rate from 2018 was inflated because most of the plastic we sent to China was landfilled or incinerated. Another interesting point: an estimated 30-36% of collected PET is wasted in the recycling process.

The original report can be accessed here: https://bit.ly/US-plastics-recycling-rate . Table 2 provides estimates and sources.

Bromley Hall benefits from the Feed the Thing program. Large toters (big blue trash cans on wheels) are stationed near the dumpsters, where students can recycle their recyclables. 

Champaign County provided this information about recycling programs in town

The master list for indoor 3-bin containers has been updated. This list includes all 3-bin station deployments, with information regarding the building, floor, and P-Tag associated with each individual bin. If applicable, additional information regarding their location is provided as well.

See the attached file to review the updated master list for the 3-bin containers.

On March 3, 2022, it was recorded that 56 buildings across campus have at least one of the new 3-bins.

From: Hiser, Daniel William <dwhiser@illinois.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2021 9:25 AM
To: Trimble, Syd <sydneyt2@illinois.edu>; Varney, Peter W <pvarney@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Sensor Pilot Update?

*Update

I don’t have access to the app that would allow me to program the RFID tags. The tags were purchased from atlasRFIDstore.com and the watch that is supposed to do something with them is SLS RFID Solutions www.slsrfid.com. I took a minimal amount of time to try to piece those clues together with no success and have not returned to the subject. The system is still just a pilot and will remain as such until we have a dedicated Zero Waste Coordinator.

The arm system on our truck had the ARM400 and power cable go bad on it so between calls with loadman to diagnose the issue and for them to finally get us the parts resulted in a 3-month lapse in data and the parts are evidently not covered under warranty (not that it's significant other than I think they should be) The system itself when working “properly” requires frequent calibration and it “learns” the driver. This is not good for us as drivers change and the results are frequent negative loads and misreadings.

I think you can get data from these trucks to an extent, but at the same time I would be hesitant to use it as a method to charge customers or with great certainty know the weights are accurate. At this time we are not equipped to consistently troubleshoot the system or have garage staff on standby to fix issues with the system as they arise. Long story short, it's almost good at what it's supposed to do but it will require more babysitting than I am willing to put into it at this time.

Thank you,

Dan Hiser

F&S Fleet Operations

Direct (217) 300-8545

From: Sydney Trimble <sydneyt2@illinois.edu>
Sent: Friday, September 10, 2021 2:22 PM
To: Hiser, Daniel William <dwhiser@illinois.edu>; Varney, Peter W <pvarney@illinois.edu>
Subject: Fwd: Sensor Pilot Update?

Sounds like we gotta talk about this pretty soon. Dan, hopefully you got the time to come up with an update on this?

Best,

Syd

From: Janssen, April Lynn <alj5@illinois.edu>
Date: Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 1:55 PM
Subject: Sensor Pilot Update?
To: Trimble, Syd <sydneyt2@illinois.edu>
Cc: Samaras, Zach <zsamaras@illinois.edu>

Hi Sydney,

I hope this new semester and planning for your October audit is going great!

Quick question for you, we know from Shantanu (and keep referencing admirably) that F&S is/was implementing a six-month pilot program with weighing sensors installed on the lift arms a waste hauling truck, and that the weight recording, paired with the bar codes on each dumpster, enabled the University to track the weight of material collected from each dumpster. You know this story.

The point - could you provide us a brief update on how that’s going? Is the pilot over or is this now a standard practice? Is it Sensoneo technology or another? I definitely want to stop by next time I am in Champaign and see how this all works 😊  We just spoke with a hauler on that services a university here in Chicago and they could definitely benefit from this technology.

Enjoy your weekend!

April   APRIL JANSSEN MAHAJAN
Sustainability Specialist
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Prairie Research Institute
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center

217-244-0469 | alj5@illinois.edu
www.istc.illinois.edu
 
 

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.