Introduction:

This project was part of the Environmental and Technical Studies (ENTS) program at Carleton. The Junior ENTS Colloquium during Spring '01 set out to determine the "greenness" of Carleton's campus. Students examined a different aspect of the campus's environmental impact.

Our task was to inspect the recycling scene:

• What is recycled?
• What is thrown away?
• What recyclable products are found in the trash?
• What does Carleton's recycling program consist of?
• Where do our recyclables go?
• How much does it cost?

In an interview with Kirk Campbell, Director of Maintenance & Custodial Services, we discovered some good (and bad) things about Carleton's recycling program. The program has existed for 12 years and costs the school $60,000 for the year. It is managed by the state's Waste Management Department, which comes to Carleton, picks up all of the recyclable goods, and directs it to a warehouse nearby. Carleton has a non-pure system, which permits up to 20% contamination (mixing up recyclables in different bins). This system allows the recyclables to be sorted and dealt with accordingly at the warehouse. A non-pure system is beneficial to the campus because it simplifies and encourages recycling on campus, whereas a pure system would require a campus community to be much more in-tune with what it was recycling and might return a lower yield. It is estimated that Carleton catches and recycles 50% of what can be recycled. In light of the fact that the state of Minnesota requires at least a 30% yield for any program that recycles, 50% is a relatively good number and gives Carleton something to be proud of.

What can be recycled on campus?

• In a Commingle bin: aluminum cans, most plastic bottles, glass bottles
• In a Mixed office paper bin: all mixed office paper (minus glossy prints) and newspaper
• In a Newspaper bin: newspaper and mixed office paper
• In a Tin bin: tin

  Little known recycling facts:

• Batteries. Carleton does not include battery recycling in its own program, but numerous student groups do. Just place your batteries in the box in Sayles-Hill 160.
• Flourescent lights. Facilities, with the help of Custodial Services, collects and recycles burnt out flourescent light bulbs on campus.
• Furniture. When new buildings and dorms are built or even when new furniture is added anywhere on campus, Carleton donates all useable old furniture to charity.
• Kitchen appliances. When Goodhue and Evans Dining Halls shut down, all of the useable kitchen appliances were donated or sold for use.
• Construction. In every contract that Carleton makes with a construction company, it is agreed upon that the construction company will remove all waste from the campus.

Methods:

We were forced to get our hands dirty.

With gloved hands, we examined the contents of all the trash and recycling bins on selected floors in one dorm (Musser), one academic building (Leighton), a common student space (Sayles) and the library (the Libe). Before digging through them, we weighed all of the bags. We then separated the trash from the recyclable products and placed all of the recyclable products in their respective bins. The bags were weighed again and the results were tallied.

Results and Discussion:

We calculated the percentage of recyclables that we found in the trash and found some interesting trends. The library posed a problem in that all trash cans and recycle bins were basically empty. Thus this building was not included in the numerical data. Because food and drink are not allowed, the only recyclable waste product was paper, which was most often placed in its proper bin.

Out of Sayles, Musser, and Leighton 22.7% of the trash was actually recyclable material. Sayles had the highest percentage, 27.8%. This is most likely because it is an area in which food and drink are consumed, creating a larger amount of unclean waste. Sayles was the area with the most waste in general.

This graph notes the percent by weight of the material found in trash cans that could have been recycled.

Overall, we noted that:

• Size of trash and recycling bins matters
• Proximity of recycling bins to trash matters
• Absence of trash cans encourages recycling
• Dirty (food remnance) on and in recycleables discourages recycling

Due to time and resource constraints (and an untimely tornado), this number only reflects the results of one sampling, taken on two weekday evenings. This is a low percentage and if this trend were to continue, Carleton would be on a path to recycling success. However, we cannot claim such success because this audit should be performed over a longer period of time and include more of Carleton's facilities.

Other facilities to examine in the future:

• Offices
• Classrooms
• Dorm rooms
• Non-academic facilities (Rec. Center, Cowling, West Gym, Facilities building)
  

  Recommendations:

  After performing this audit, we have compiled the following recommendations for Carleton.

• Increase number of recycling bins around campus
• Increase the type of recycling bins (commingle bottles and cans, mixed office and newspaper)
• Place larger bins near large trash cans
• Place larger and more recycling bins in heavily used areas
• Place recycling bins as close as possible to trash cans
• Color code the labels for the category of the bin (e.g. hot pink for mixed office paper)
• Combine mixed office paper and newspapers into one bin
• Find convenient and accessible cardboard box recycling bins
• Increase awareness of what can be recycled on campus (batteries, cardboard boxes, flourescent light bulbs)

References and Links:

• http://www.property.orst.edu/Campus_Recycling/
• http://www.nwf.org/campusecology/
• http://recycling.wlu.edu/
• Interview with Kirk Campbell, Director of Maintenance & Custodial Services, Carleton College, May 9, 2001