University of Oregon
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
5.59 / 8.00 |
Cimmeron
Gillespie Education & Analytics Coordinator Office of Sustainability |
Figures needed to determine total waste generated (and diverted):
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Materials recycled | 796.29 Tons | 821.56 Tons |
| Materials composted | 563.77 Tons | 31.85 Tons |
| Materials donated or re-sold | 135.12 Tons | 3.26 Tons |
| Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion | 227.49 Tons | 0 Tons |
| Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator | 1,051 Tons | 1,914.54 Tons |
| Total waste generated | 2,773.67 Tons | 2,771.21 Tons |
A brief description of the residual conversion facility:
Three facilities are used for residual conversion.
First is Sequential Bio-fuels, who collects grease and spent cooking oil and convert it to biofuels.
Second, a residual conversion facility is used for minor projects scrap materials. The facility, Eco-Sort, hand processes materials for scrap wood, scrap metal, and any salvageable materials. Their sort line pushes material across a conveyor belt on the second floor of a facility. Individuals process specific materials, removing any recoverable items, and sorting the recovered items into scrap material bays in the floor below. Remaining materials not recovered are treated as scrap for disposal. For loads from the UO they produce an average of 40% recovery and 60% disposal/landfill.
Third, UO also works with Juno, a facility which accepts landfilled materials, and uses an autoclave and agitation process to pulp and extract fiber materials from the standard landfill material stream. The Juno process also extracts both ferrous and non-ferrous metals which were incorrectly disposed of as landfill materials. For more information on the Juno recovery facility: https://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/georgia-pacific-operations-juno-technology-toledo-oregon/
Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
| Start Date | End Date | |
| Performance Period | July 1, 2021 | June 30, 2022 |
| Baseline Period | July 1, 1992 | June 30, 1993 |
A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:
The Zero Waste Program (formerly campus recycling) performs studies of material composition in the waste stream to evaluate needed improvements. The institution maintains waste stream records going back to FY 1993.
Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Number of students resident on-site | 5,394 | 3,057 |
| Number of employees resident on-site | 126 | 70 |
| Number of other individuals resident on-site | 0 | 0 |
| Total full-time equivalent student enrollment | 21,781 | 15,092 |
| Full-time equivalent of employees | 4,709 | 2,562 |
| Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education | 191 | 0 |
| Weighted campus users | 21,104.25 | 14,022.25 |
Total waste generated per weighted campus user:
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Total waste generated per weighted campus user | 0.13 Tons | 0.20 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 | Yes |
| Animal bedding | Yes |
| White goods (i.e. appliances) | Yes |
| Electronics | Yes |
| Laboratory equipment | Yes |
| Furniture | Yes |
| Residence hall move-in/move-out waste | Yes |
| Scrap metal | Yes |
| Pallets | Yes |
| Tires | Yes |
| Other (please specify below) | Yes |
A brief description of other materials the institution has recycled, composted, donated and/or re-sold:
Other recovered items: Woodwaste, mattresses, styrofoam, mailing envelopes, books, confidential materials, plastic bucket reuse.
Other recovered material streams: Construction and demolition materials. Surplus furniture, kitchen supplies, and abandoned property.
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:
The University sustains a Zero Waste Program. The Zero Waste program maintains an intermediary processor role, collecting materials across campus, centralizing materials and removing contamination on site. All materials collected for recycling are processed to remove contamination before sending materials on to markets.
Initial collection on campus uses a double and triple stream collection (varies by location), with paper separated from glass-metal-plastics collection. This preserves the material integrity of the paper and allows for more extensive sorting of glass, metal, and plastic materials. The collection process also separates out cardboard per instructions of the fire marshal and special site-specific collections for particular materials such as Styrofoam, rigid plastics from science areas, bulk containers from kitchens, and post-consumer office compost.
UO performs quarterly waste audits during the academic year to test best practices, monitor the waste stream, and look for possible material recovery improvements.
A brief description of the institution's waste-related behavior change initiatives:
Efforts to change waste-related behavior begin by working with students, faculty, and staff, to promote an understanding of proper sorting and an ethic of active participation in using the collection system. The Zero Waste Program and Office of Sustainability maintain regular educational programming, beginning with the new school year for students, and new employee orientation. Programming occurs through an active presence as introduction workshops for students, and at Week of Welcome activities during Move-Ins and the first week of classes, promotional posters, table tents, digital displays, and active outreach through tabling in residence halls are all used. There is an extensive outreach program during the first weeks of the year, to orient students, and reorient returning students to the current collection standards used on campus. Faculty and staff have ongoing training, offered through the Green Office Certification, and as part of general educational events with the campus community.
In addition to basic instruction in recycling students are encouraged to practice waste reduction. Tabling efforts and promotional materials encouraging reuse, second-hand purchasing, and making students aware of campus waste-reduction resources. Regular workshops on waste reduction are held, facility tours are offered, and classroom presentations are given on campus to encourage and foster an ethic of reducing waste and the importance of material recovery.
There is signage placed at every waste collection point directing users on how to correctly sort materials. Educational videos are promoted with a raffle at the start of the year.
A phone/text-a-picture helpline is available to all campus users to answer any questions and clarify any uncertainty regarding how to properly handle materials.
UO is a regular participant in the Campus Race to Zero Waste, the intercollegiate recycling competition. The US participated in the single-building challenge testing a recycling practice of locking cardboard collection bins partially open. This experiment was followed with additional signage and residence hall outreach. This experiment forms the basis of a case study for campus-wide changes.
During Move-Outs, a week-long tabling series occurs in major residence hall locations. Residence are asked to play a games where they identify incorrectly disposed items, and they win a reused cardboard box. These activities encourage residents to think about their waste during Move-Outs and to begin packing and sorting materials for donation before moving out.
A brief description of the institution's waste audits and other initiatives to assess its materials management efforts and identify areas for improvement:
The Zero Waste Program maintains year-round ongoing processing/sorting of materials, when any abnormally high levels of contamination, or specific new contamination sources arrive, this is communicated to the appropriate building liaisons.
Beginning in 2019, the Office of Sustainability conducts annual waste audits across multiple campus building to sample various material streams, as part of a representative campus-wide waste composition study. The audits sorted and cataloged specific materials in the trash which could have been recycled, or for which reusable alternatives exist. This series of waste audits allowed focused approaches to education towards building users and material generators, as well as the ability to better respond to specific building needs.
A brief description of the institution's procurement policies designed to prevent waste:
The University maintains a centralized purchasing system which applies enterprise utility (efficiency through bulk purchasing across units). Purchasing follows sustainable principles, looking for only energy star electronics, and offering post-consumer recycled content options. By centralizing purchasing, there is reduced transportation waste and all materials are vetted in advance.
The sustainable purchasing principles can be found on the Sustainability dashboard:
https://sustainability.uoregon.edu/purchasing.html
and #5 Purchasing: https://sustainability.uoregon.edu/sustainabilityPlanning.html
"Questions to ask about your purchase:
-May a reused product meet your needs?
-Is the product energy efficient in production and use?
-Does the product have a high recycled/post consumer contract?
-Is the product reusable?
-Does the product have less, recyclable, or biodegradable packaging?
-Will the product last (is it durable)?
-Was the product produced locally or regionally?
-Overall, is the product the least environmentally damaging throughout its lifetime?
-Is the product non-toxic or minimally toxic (preferably biodegradable)?
-Can the product be recycled and, if not recyclable, may it be disposed of safely?
-Is the product made from raw materials obtained in an environmentally sound, sustainable manner?"
A brief description of the institution's surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:
The University of Oregon operates several programs to reuse campus property as follows: reusable surplus property program operates out of a Warehouse where campus property is held for campus users to exchange items and reuse items on campus. Items not reused through surplus property are cleared out through non-profit distribution, donation, recycling, sale to the public or disposal. See the Office supply exchange and surplus properties program:
https://cpfm.uoregon.edu/surplus-office-supplies
The surplus properties page is behind a login screen, publicly from the forms page, there is evidence that there are options available to campus users.
https://surplus.uoregon.edu/content/forms
Additionally, the Zero Waste Program and Student Sustainability Center operates the Reusable Office Supply Exchange (ROSE). ROSE is currently undergoing a change to include more student-focused services, including reused professional clothing, student focused items, etc. See the website for ROSE here: https://cpfm.uoregon.edu/campus-services#ROSE
A brief description of the institution's platforms to encourage peer-to-peer exchange and reuse:
Through the surplus properties program, any item can be listed for other campus users to exchange item peer to peer. This limits the need to centralize materials and lets campus users search for items they need from the comfort of their office. There is a new platform for campus users to view the available inventory in the surplus warehouse:
https://cpfm.uoregon.edu/uo-surplus-furniture-campus
The peer to peer and department to department exchange can cover both office equipment: https://cpfm.uoregon.edu/surplus-office-supplies as well as furniture and similar items.
As mentioned above, the surplus properties page is behind a login screen, publicly from the forms page, there is evidence that there are options available to campus users.
https://surplus.uoregon.edu/content/forms
A brief description of the institution's limits on paper and ink consumption:
University centralized purchasing prevents duplication of ordering materials.
The University electronic communication policy reduces paper and ink communication.
University proactive anti-junk mail activities regularly reduce waste of external materials being printed for the institution. Printing in computer labs is done for a small fee, disincentivizing mass printing. There is now a central digital portal used by all courses on campus, this enables assignments to be summitted digitally, and reading to be accessible digitally without needing to be printed. As a consequence of these behavior changes paper materials have declined over time on campus from a high of just over 900 tons annually in FY04 down to 467 tons annually in 2022.
The UO maintains contract language requiring the ink service provider for campus to collect and reuse cartridges, so that partially unused material are not wasted, and new materials are not unnecessarily generated.
A brief description of the institution's initiatives to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:
The UO uses a digital classroom platform Canvas to distribute and take in digital materials such as PDF course documents, and turn in assignments.
The University has made electronic mail service the required method of official communication and an email account is setup for every member of the student body, faculty, and staff. This policy and practice make non-print communication the preferred form of communication.
There ongoing efforts to limit and reduce junk mail on campus, through printing and mailing services, junk mail subscriptions are actively responded to and discontinued. This practice of rejecting and actively removing junk mail subscriptions reduces print waste.
A brief description of the institution's program to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:
The Zero Waste Program has a move-in and move-out recovery program that has been highly successful. For move-ins, the focus is on recovering packaging, broken materials, and cardboard, additional waste collection sites are set up in high-traffic areas. During move-outs week, the Zero Waste Program coordinates staff and volunteers to support charitable donation and material recover efforts. For FY22, over 40 tons of reusables were donated to local non-profits to re-distribute to low-income families. See the University Housing website on Give Before You Go here: https://housing.uoregon.edu/donate
A brief description of the institution's programs or initiatives to recover and reuse other materials intended for disposal:
The UO maintains an active surplus properties program, supporting furniture reuse, and selling items not claimed on campus to the community. Abandoned property is donated to area nonprofits or recycled.
The Zero Waste Program and Office of Sustainability have hosted a series of events including workshops on reuse & repair, educational activities encouraging 2nd had purchasing rather than buying new. https://cpfm.uoregon.edu/zerowaste-about-us
The Student Sustainability Center maintains a free store, where students can leave or take items such as clothing, dining ware, and school supplies. The Student Sustain ability Center and Zero Waste Program partner to run the ROSE room: https://cpfm.uoregon.edu/campus-services#ROSE
Other projects include a reusable lost and found water bottle collection, washing and labeling for re-distribution campus wide. There are also specialized areas where reusables are collected. See the Bottles Up program on the Student Sustainability Website here: https://emu.uoregon.edu/waste-reduction.
The Student Sustainability Center hosts a grad-to-grad gown share, enabling graduates to leave their robes for the next year of students.
There is a reuse program for lab chemicals, surplus chemical agents are stored and used by other courses, rather than disposed.
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:
Electronic communications policy
https://registrar.uoregon.edu/current-students/student-e-mail-communication-policy
UO Comprehensive Environmental policy
https://cpfm.uoregon.edu/Policy-Sustainability
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.