Hello all,
Here are my updates from last week:
Sincerely,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
Hi Tracy—
This week, I started getting my head back in the game after my absence but did not accomplish anything substantive. I plan to go over notes and pick up the loose threads of the different projects I had been working on in the coming week. In particular, I have communications I need to make on the battery recycling and graduate student/family housing recycling efforts.
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
Attached are the presentations prepared by the students in ENVS 301. The course syllabus is also attached.
Hello all,
Here are my updates from last week:
Sincerely,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
Hello all,
Here are my updates from last week:
Sincerely,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
Hello all,
Here are my updates from last week:
Sincerely,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
Hello all,
Here is a summary of my activity last week:
Sincerely,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
Hi Tracy—
Last week, my main activities were
I can provide more detail on any of these items if it’s helpful/useful to do so.
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
Good morning, Tracy—
Here is what I’ve been up to this past week:
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
At the PWR SWAT Team meeting on March 15th, the team debated over the message in the new Ethics Compliance Message concerning recycling standards and rules. The team decided that two videos should be created, one with base instructions for recycling, the other for explaining the commonly misunderstood paper policy. The team will look more into the paper policy draft and suggest a new paper policy for the campus.
The new Zero Waste Coordinator started work on March 13.
Morgan Johnston and Shawna Grady met to discuss the potential uses for the Transportation Building's ECIP funding award ($10,000). Options included additional recycling bins, LED lamps, power strips, battery recycling containers, and potentially a waste characterization study for the building (if available through ISTC).
The SSC funding for Zero Waste Coordination ($64,862) covers four different recycling efforts.
1) Campus-wide infrastructure, $29,750: Expanding the “Dual bins on the Quad” to north of Green and eastward to Goodwin Avenue, in collaboration with F&S Superintendent of Grounds Ryan Welch. Ryan’s Grounds workers are mapping the existing bins, as a first step. All of this funding is for the physical infrastructure (bins and lids, etc.).
2) Campus-wide education, $1,032: The key message of personal responsibility for waste management needs to be communicated through multiple channels on campus, in order to effect the culture shift that we deeply need on campus. F&S will create educational materials to explain the recycling options available to the campus community, to reduce confusion. The funding is based on 8 presentations throughout campus and development of educational materials (which will be used in future years as well). All materials will thank SSC for their funding support.
3) Building specific solutions, $30,520: Per the completed Waste Characterization Studies, there are various changes that can be implemented in the studied buildings to improve waste diversion. These changes need to be approved and implemented in coordination with building occupants, so there is a need for a staff coordinator to work with the individual units. The funding is based on two weeks of staff time per building, for eight buildings.
4) Special recyclables expansion $3,560: There are new programs available for interested units on campus to recycle nitrile gloves, styrofoam, alkaline batteries, and glass. Unfortunately, very few units are aware of these opportunities. We are requested funding for student employees to reach out directly to potential participants and help them incorporate the applicable programs.
The compost turner at the landscape composting site for campus Grounds is out of commission. However, we still windrow our landscape debris and the OE's turn it with a bucket tractor the best they can.
This is a multi-pronged project with four areas of focus, all working toward our eventual goal of being a Zero Waste Campus.
The largest portion of funding is going to add new recycling bins to areas north and east of the Main Quad as an expansion of the dual-bin recycling system currently used. The Main Quad bins have been very successful and this is a timely and needed expansion.
Over the last few years, the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) has been conducting waste audits of certain campus buildings such as the Swanlund Administration Building and the Business Instructional Facility. The second part of this proposal is supporting building-specific solutions for each of the eight buildings that were audited. Staff from ISTC will work with building stakeholders to identify how to reduce their waste, then implement the new measures.
Several other new waste streams, such as nitrile gloves and Styrofoam, have been added to campus’s waste diversion efforts recently. The third part of this proposal will employ student employees to conduct campuswide outreach with buildings on campus to improve participation in these new initiatives.
Finally, a small amount of money is being set aside for education and outreach to the campus community regarding zero waste efforts. This will largely occur via social media advertisements and digital signage, and will be developed in conjunction with SSC’s own subcommittee for marketing.
According to the 2010 Illinois Climate Action Plan, the University will exceed the state local food procurement standards by making more than 30 percent of food purchases from local sources (within 100 miles) by 2015. The University will commit to a Zero Waste campus policy by 2012, a large-scale food composting project by 2012, and target an increase in the University’s waste diversion rate to 75 percent by 2020.
Ben McCall suggested a central repository of information about "how to deal with stuff" on our campus -- maybe a website called zerowaste.illinois.edu. He suggested it could perhaps be a collaboration between F&S, ISTC, and iSEE. Morgan replied with the recommend ation that we use an existing website with a short URL rather than set up a completely new one, and then get a short URL for it.
The current pages for our campus are the F&S Waste Management and Recycling page at http://www.fs.illinois.edu/services/waste-management-recycling, and the iCAP Portal repository page at https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/themes/procurement-waste.
Urbana has a similar site at: http://urbanaillinois.us/residents/recycling-program-u-cycle/where-do-i-take-it.
Fellow waste warriors,
UO does cool things when it comes to the material management system. They did one of the first campus waste audits back in the early 90s and have since grown into a power house in recycling and materials management. They have a new training video. Its 50mins long, and yes that is extremely excessive. But it is a great cheat sheet to evaluate our current state and where we could go.
Shantanu Pai
On Thursday, September 11, 2014 11:28:32 AM UTC-5, K2 wrote:
Here is a training video that the students just finished here at the University of Oregon. It’s close to an hour and will be shown to all new student employees with the UO Zero Waste Program. It’s funny and poignant while being instructive. Way to go students of the world…..working so hard for a better life…..it’s crazy to see how hard we all work saving resources. This video is about you too…..and we say to all of you in zero waste land-THANKS for recycling! Zero Waste is Higher Education….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQHQJJzldbA&feature=youtu.be&a
Today recycling containers were placed on the trash bin at Ikenberry Commons. The purpose is to collect and recycle all the nitrile gloves used by food service employees. The weight of the gloves will be recorded to measure environmental impact.
