| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 71.19 |
| Liaison | Margaret Bounds |
| Submission Date | March 1, 2024 |
Connecticut College
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.07 / 8.00 |
Margaret
Bounds Director of Sustainability Office of Sustainability |
Figures needed to determine total waste generated (and diverted):
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Materials recycled | 129.40 Tons | 250.57 Tons |
| Materials composted | 0 Tons | 0 Tons |
| Materials donated or re-sold | 13.27 Tons | 5.86 Tons |
| Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion | 0 Tons | 0 Tons |
| Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator | 285 Tons | 373.19 Tons |
| Total waste generated | 427.67 Tons | 629.62 Tons |
A brief description of the residual conversion facility:
Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
| Start Date | End Date | |
| Performance Period | July 1, 2022 | June 30, 2023 |
| Baseline Period | July 1, 2016 | June 30, 2017 |
A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:
2017 was adopted as our baseline year for waste reporting when we adopted our Campus Sustainability Plan in 2018. It was used as the baseline for our last STARS report in 2021. 2017 is also the first year for which we have a comprehensive waste report including all the same streams that we monitor today. This allows us to provide a more complete comparison to the performance year.
Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Number of students resident on-site | 1,806 | 1,928 |
| Number of employees resident on-site | 14 | 27 |
| Number of other individuals resident on-site | 7 | 34 |
| Total full-time equivalent student enrollment | 1,926 | 1,995 |
| Full-time equivalent of employees | 633.70 | 776 |
| Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education | 0 | 0 |
| Weighted campus users | 2,381.78 | 2,601 |
Total waste generated per weighted campus user:
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Total waste generated per weighted campus user | 0.18 Tons | 0.24 Tons |
Percentage reduction in total waste generated per weighted campus user from baseline:
Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator by recycling, composting, donating or re-selling, performance year:
Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator (including up to 10 percent attributable to post-recycling residual conversion):
In the waste figures reported above, has the institution recycled, composted, donated and/or re-sold the following materials?:
| Yes or No | |
| Paper, plastics, glass, metals, and other recyclable containers | Yes |
| Food | Yes |
| Cooking oil | Yes |
| Plant materials | No |
| Animal bedding | No |
| White goods (i.e. appliances) | Yes |
| Electronics | Yes |
| Laboratory equipment | No |
| Furniture | Yes |
| Residence hall move-in/move-out waste | Yes |
| Scrap metal | Yes |
| Pallets | No |
| Tires | Yes |
| Other (please specify below) | No |
A brief description of other materials the institution has recycled, composted, donated and/or re-sold:
Pre and post consumer food waste is collected from our campus dining halls and is used for animal feed at a local pig farm. We do not receive reports on the weight collected, so this has not been included. We estimate it to be 80-100 tons per year.
Materials intended for disposal but subsequently recovered and reused on campus, performance year:
Does the institution use single stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:
Does the institution use dual stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:
Does the institution use multi-stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:
Average contamination rate for the institution’s recycling program:
A brief description of any recycling quality control mechanisms employed:
A brief description of the institution's waste-related behavior change initiatives:
All recycling and trash bins are paired for ease of disposal and bins are standardized across campus. Standard recycling signage has been developed by a student Waste Reduction Team and was installed in two main buildings. The Office of Sustainability holds sustainability trainings each semester for students and upon request for departments. During Campus Sustainability Week and Earth Week we run a program called "Caught Green Handed." Students are "caught" on campus recycling or minimizing waste through reusables and are given a sticker and profiled on our social media.
A brief description of the institution's waste audits and other initiatives to assess its materials management efforts and identify areas for improvement:
Waste audits on our student center have been completed each semester since 2017 (with a pause during the Covid-19 pandemic). These regular waste audits have allowed us to measure the effectiveness of our new signage and of recycling trainings and programming.
A brief description of the institution's procurement policies designed to prevent waste:
The College adopted a bottled water policy that bans the sale or provision of bottled water on campus.
Office Swap (see below for more) is listed as the first supplier in our centralized procurement dashboard and users are encouraged to check Office Swap first during procurement trainings.
A brief description of the institution's surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:
The Office of Sustainability has run the Office Swap Program for surplus office supplies and furniture since January 2016. Our student Office Coordinator collects unwanted items from offices, post them in a catalog on our e-procurement platform CTW OneSource, and then re-distributes the supplies to other offices across campus when they order items. The catalog of available items is located in the College's online purchasing portal, so requests for items can be placed alongside regular office supply orders.
A brief description of the institution's platforms to encourage peer-to-peer exchange and reuse:
ConnColl Freecycle is a listserv open to the campus community to exchange personal items (clothing, electronics, children's things, etc.) and/or work-related items (office supplies, furniture, etc). Everything listed in this group must be offered for free.
Camel Marketplace, hosted on our intranet, allows students, faculty and staff to post items for sale.
A brief description of the institution's limits on paper and ink consumption:
Each student is provided with a $30 allocation of printing funds per academic school year. After this initial amount, students must pay for each page printed. Departments pay for printing through the college-wide PaperCut system. Double-sided printing is cheaper than single-sided in an effort to encourage this practice. A policy limiting the use of personal desktop printers was adopted in summer 2020 and almost all personal desktop printers have now been removed from faculty and staff offices. We believe this is partially responsible for the 60% reduction in printing that we have seen since 2019.
A brief description of the institution's initiatives to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:
The course catalog has been available only online since the 2012-2013 academic year. The Board of Trustees are provided with a digital version of their meeting packet instead of printed binders.
A brief description of the institution's program to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:
At the end of each spring semester, the Spring Give N' Go Program allows for students to donate unwanted clothing, furniture, electronics, books and non perishable food items as they move out of their residence halls. Donated items are made available to local non-profits at an "Agency Pick-Up Day" co-run by the United Way of Southeastern Connecticut and Safe Futures.
A brief description of the institution's programs or initiatives to recover and reuse other materials intended for disposal:
Website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization and diversion efforts is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.