Campus Sustainability

Waste Disposal and Recycling

Overview

Solid waste is most commonly disposed of through burial in a landfill or by incineration. While advances in technology have lessened the environmental impact of these methods, they remain sources of air and water pollution. The most effective ways to minimize the footprint of the waste stream is to

  • reduce trash production
  • explore ways to reuse items
  • recycle

The campus generates a number of different types of waste. Consider the boxboard and cardboard packaging for food shipments to Dining Services, old carpet stripped from a residence hall, broken office equipment, the contents of office trash and recycling bins. We can classify these different types of waste into three categories based on where they go after leaving the campus:

  • Daily waste, the largest category by weight, consists of trash that leaves the campus via the regular dumpsters. It is transported to Millbury, Mass., where it is burned in a waste-to-energy incinerator that produces electricity.
  • Project waste, the smallest sector in the waste stream, is made of materials from small renovation projects. It is hauled to landfills in Western Massachusetts and Fitchburg, Mass. The methane from these landfills is captured and burned to generate electricity.
  • Recycling consists of commodities that fetch a monetary return based on their value as raw materials for various products. Two Clark students established Clark's recycling program in 1990. Originally housed in the basement of the Goddard Library, the program now resides in its own building at 5 Hawthorne St. and remains student-run. Recycled items include all types of paper and cardboard, No. 1 and No. 2 plastic beverage containers, aluminum and tin cans, glass bottles and jars of all colors, toner cartridges, and metal. While nearly all of these materials are recycled without leaving the state, toner cartridges are shipped to Michigan for processing.

Benchmarks

Total waste generated in tons.

Total recycling in tons.

Performance

The trends for trash and recycling from 2004 to 2006 support the complementary goals of the recycling program to reduce the amount of trash generated and increase recycling. Between 2004 and 2006, the level of total trash-daily and project waste combined-was reduced by 111 tons, or 14 percent. A number of improvements were responsible for these reductions. Since 2004, locking the compactors and dumpsters has minimized unauthorized dumping. Dump and Run™, a program organizing the collection and sale of items students discard as they move off campus, saved 12 tons from the waste stream in 2004 and 13 tons in 2005. The recycling program also reduced the amount of trash.

Recycling increased by 33 tons, or 38 percent, between 2004 and 2006. The larger part of this rise occurred in 2005, the first full year the recycling program was staffed by a part-time coordinator. In addition to an increase in public education about recycling on campus during that year, paper recycling was expanded to include the residence halls and houses and nearly 100 deskside recycling bins were distributed to faculty and staff for paper, bottles, and cans. As a result of these boosts in public awareness and large improvements to the collection infrastructure, the recycling rate increased from 10 percent of the total waste in 2004 to 15 percent in 2006.

Goals and Next Steps

While the trend lines are going in the right direction, the effort to further reduce the impact our waste stream has on the environment must be maintained. These goals and next steps serve to aid the campus along that path.

Goals

  1. 1. Continue to reduce the volume of trash produced and maintain low levels of total waste.
  2. 2. Increase the recycling rate to 20 percent of total waste by 2008.

Next Steps

  • 1. Establish composting in the Higgins University Center.
  • 2. Increase the ease and availability of recycling by supplying a recycling bin near each trash bin.
  • 3. Develop a policy for new construction to include space for recycling bins in floor layouts.
  • 4. Explore an expansion of the types of material we recycle (e.g. plastic bottles with codes other than No. 1 and No. 2).
  • 5. Expand education efforts on waste reduction and recycling.
  • 6. Close the recycling loop by buying products made from recycled materials and recyclable materials.
  • 7. Track waste and recycling from new construction projects.
  • 8. Promote Clark's Online Market Place as an option for reuse.