Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 69.28
Liaison Austin Eriksson
Submission Date Feb. 29, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

California State University, Northridge
OP-23: Waste Diversion

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.14 / 3.00 Austin Eriksson
Sustainability Program Manager
FPDC
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Materials diverted from the solid waste landfill or incinerator:
782.22 Tons

Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator :
1,270.02 Tons

A brief description of programs, policies, infrastructure investments, outreach efforts, and/or other factors that contributed to the diversion rate, including efforts made during the previous three years:

The CSU has mandated that all campuses shall have a 50% diversion rate by 2016 and 80% by 2020. With CSUN’s diversion rate hovering around 15%-20% for the last few years the University had to make some major changes to our waste hauling contract as well as some of our processes in order to meet these goals. The new contract allows to do several important things. The first is all of our waste is not being processed in a MRF prior to being sent to the landfill, allowing us to pick out ~30% of the material and recycle it. The second is that since each bin will be weighed during pickup, we can be smarter about how we schedule our bin pickups. The third is we are now having campus wide waste audits being performed every semester to help identify our waste stream and make changes. The fourth is the ability to see and track the data live at a publicly accessible website (csun.wastetracking.com). With all of these changes our new diversion rate has increased to +/-60%. Now we are not only meeting the 2016 goal, but we are on track to meet the 2020 goal.


A brief description of any food donation programs employed by the institution:

CSUN donates food to the Food Recovery Network.


A brief description of any pre-consumer food waste composting program employed by the institution:

CSUN has an on campus composting program that is ran through the Institute for Sustainability and sponsored by The University Corporation. This program handles all of the pre-consumer food waste from the main eateries, Juice It Up, and all of our cmapus coffee shops.


A brief description of any post-consumer food waste composting program employed by the institution:

CSUN Dining's student housing dining location, Geronimo's, is participating in both a pre and post consumer food waste composting program. The pre and post consumer food waste is handled by our waste hauler and composted off site at their facility.


Does the institution include the following materials in its waste diversion efforts?:
Yes or No
Paper, plastics, glass, metals, and other recyclable containers Yes
Food donations Yes
Food for animals No
Food composting Yes
Cooking oil Yes
+ Date Revised: Oct. 6, 2017
Plant materials composting Yes
Animal bedding composting No
Batteries Yes
Light bulbs Yes
Toner/ink-jet cartridges Yes
White goods (i.e. appliances) Yes
Laboratory equipment Yes
Furniture Yes
Residence hall move-in/move-out waste Yes
Scrap metal Yes
Pallets Yes
Motor oil No
Tires No

Other materials that the institution includes in its waste diversion efforts:
---

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.