With waste costs rising year after year, educational institutions across the country are beginning to explore Zero Waste campus sustainability programs, and making waste reduction a priority. Every campus sustainability plan must include a focus on waste. Besides, students are demanding it. A December 2022 study by College Pulse noted that “waste management” was the second most-cited category of sustainability that students wanted their institutions to improve.
How Big is the Campus Waste Problem?
- According to Dump and Run, Inc., the average college student produces 640 pounds of solid waste each year, including 500 disposable cups and 320 pounds of paper. This is magnified when you include waste generated by staff, visitors, vendors and others across all school facilities.
- Food waste is a particularly pressing problems with an estimated 22 million pounds of food wasted on college campuses each year, according to the National Resources Defense Council.
What is a Zero Waste Campus?
Misconceptions about what Zero Waste means may be holding some institutions back from implementing Zero Waste programs. Remember, Zero Waste does not mean that you will have to produce no waste at all. To put it simply, going Zero Waste is the act of producing less waste through prioritizing waste reduction, as well as reuse, resource efficiency, and recycling with the ultimate goal of closing that loop. In short, it is effective waste management.
Establishing a Zero Waste Campus
If you are a student, check this EPA page with tips for students, homes and communities.
If you manage a college facility or are a sustainability officer or campus administrator, here is how you can begin to reduce waste and move towards establishing a Zero Waste campus, and improving your campus sustainability plan. These are some of the proven strategies Great Forest has used successfully at campuses across the country.
1) Conduct a Waste Audit
What is in your trash? As much as 62% of the trash you are paying to remove might NOT be trash at all, according to findings from the largest waste characterization study focused on commercial buildings. This means that most organizations are paying more than they need to for waste removal. Is your institution spending too much on waste? The only way to find out is to conduct a waste audit.
A waste audit gives you a clear picture of what your institution is throwing away, what is being diverted, and how effectively (or not) your waste and recycling programs are working. In short, waste audits can reveal where inefficiencies lie and provide actionable insights for improvement. Here’s everything you need to know about waste audits.
Waste audits are also crucial to verifying the data from your waste haulers to make sure that your waste program is right-sized and optimized, and that you are not being overserviced and overcharged. After all, it has been reported that the average front load dumpster is only 53% full when collected. Are you paying to haul air?
2) Leverage Technology
Tools like AI-powered waste meters and smart sensors can enhance your waste audit data by keeping a constant eye on the fullness of your dumpsters. This technology can also help you spot irregularities and forecast waste patterns so that you can adjust for peak waste periods. The key is having actionable insights. When paired with expert analysis, data from AI-powered sensors and waste meters can help you reach your sustainability goals faster (read our case study about a community with 175 waste sensors).
3) Make Sure You are in Compliance
Solid waste-related regulations are designed to reduce waste generation and improve environmental performance. As such, legal compliance is not simply a necessity–it is a valuable tool that guides your institution towards greater efficiency and recognition as a leader in sustainability. Are you in compliance? Here’s a 5-step guide to achieving compliance. Download the full compliance guide here.
4) Take the Lead: Address Food Waste, Single-Use Items
Take the lead to address the issues that resonate with your students, staff and other stakeholders before being forced to comply with bans and regulations.
Address Food Waste: As mentioned above, an estimated 22 million pounds of food is wasted on college campuses across the country each year. Consider implementing an organics program, or donating edible food to communities in need. Here are some resources:
- Organics Recycling For Businesses and Organizations: A Guide To Costs and Other Considerations.
- Download our food waste toolkit
- Case Study: Food Waste Audit Helps Reduce Waste + Do Good At The Same Time
Address Single-Use Items: Encourage the use of reusable items whenever possible. For example, promote the use of reusable water bottles and coffee cups. Many campuses have started initiatives such as providing discounts for using reusable items at campus cafes. And initiatives like installing water refilling stations around campus can significantly reduce single-use plastic bottle waste. At Duke University, researchers found that by installing 50 water bottle refilling stations around campus, the school could avoid using more than 400,000 plastic bottles!
NOTE: If you are considering compostable serve ware for your campus food outlets, read this first. In some cases, compostable items (which are NOT recyclable) will not reduce waste, and might increase costs instead.
5) Don’t Forget Events
Hundreds of events take place at every campus each semester, from panel discussions and conferences to orientation and graduation parties, club meetings, and sporting events. Every event, large or small, can be produced with less waste. This guide will put you on the right path in just 10 simple steps.
6) Educate and Showcase
Make sure all stakeholders, including students, faculty, staff, janitorial crews, and vendors, understand how your waste and recycling program works. The best program will fail if there is no awareness or education. Stakeholders should know what can be recycled, where to place those materials, and how to avoid contamination, which can render recycling worthless. Make sure signs and instructions are clear and visible.
Raise awareness by participating in programs such as the Campus Race to Zero Waste (formerly RecycleMania), a competition which pits campuses across the U.S. and Canada, and advances campus recycling and waste reduction efforts.
In addition, remember to showcase your successes. While many campuses have some waste reduction initiatives in place, the College Pulse study reported that only 23% of participants believed that their university is very sustainable. So don’t forget to tell your campus population how much you have all achieved by working together to reduce waste. Share facts and figures, or make a big green statement. All this helps to activate cooperation between different stakeholders and departments across your campus, and ensure that your Zero Waste efforts receive support from the entire campus community.
7) Donate
Each year, over 100 million tons of material end up in landfills. For campuses across the country, dorm move-out periods are opportunities to divert some of these materials from the landfill. Find and make connections with nonprofits in your area that can use those unwanted assets. Our guide explains how institutions can donate unwanted assets, even hard-to-place or bulky items like mattresses, fitness equipment, and old wallpaper. After all, these items are still useful. They just need to be matched to a new home.
Case Study: Waste Audit Puts Major University on Path to Meet Sustainability Goals
One university wanted to understand what actions it could take to drive sustainability improvements at three of its major campus buildings. A Great Forest waste audit uncovered a large amount of recyclable materials in the university’s trash stream, including a lot of Keurig cups. Targeted recommendations resulted in an increase in the buildings’ diversion rate, from 43 percent to 76 percent. Read the full case study.
Ready to Reduce Waste on Your Campus?
Reach out to a Great Forest representative. Have questions? we can help. Download our Zero Waste Business guide below.
(Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash)
Learn More: