Great Forest made a big statement about recycling and waste with this massive cardboard tower. The visually stunning display caught the eye of many tenants in the lobby of 480 Washington Boulevard. It illustrated in simple, visual terms the amount of waste generated from discarding cardboard trays used in many cafeterias.
Anna Dengler, Great Forest’s director of sustainability, conceived of the project and completed it with the support of Cushman and Wakefield, the building’s manager, and tenant and leaseholder UBS.
“We wanted to make sure everyone knew about and made full use of the building’s comprehensive recycling program, and this definitely did the job,” says Anna Dengler,
This novel approach was a big hit with tenants. It successfully raised awareness of the building’s comprehensive recycling program, encouraging every tenant to make full use of the green options provided by the building.
The tower was built using over 640 discarded cardboard trays. Each row of the tower structure was made up of 16 trays.
Cardboard trays are used in cafeterias all over the country.
Each week, the number of trays discarded from this building equals 4 times the height of this structure.
Each year 135,200 cardboard trays are discarded, of which only about half are separated for recycling. This means that 6 tons of recyclable material go to landfill annually from disposable cafeteria trays alone.
Recycling 6 tons of cardboard would save:
- 102 mature trees
- 42,000 gallons of water
- 18 cubic yards of landfill space
- 12 barrels of oil
- 24,600 kilowatt-hours of electricity