WASTE

Comprehensive Environmental Policy directives: “The University will establish and maintain programs that minimize solid waste (including food waste) through reduction, reuse, and recycling.”

“The University will minimize the use of hazardous materials when possible while recognizing the necessity of some hazardous materials for research, teaching, and operations. The University supports environmentally responsible management and disposal of hazardous material.”

WASTE MANAGEMENT

UO’s solid waste management practices include recycling, composting, repurposing, and waste disposal efforts. UO has a strong legacy of waste reduction and recycling, and the campus community is passionately committed to waste reduction. For many, recycling is a gateway to general sustainability and provides daily opportunities to participate directly in campus sustainability efforts.

By 2011, UO’s Zero Waste Program reached the benchmark of diverting more than half of campus’s solid waste. Over the years, Zero Waste increased composting programs and, in 2015, began tracking waste from Construction and Demolition (C&D) projects. The first graphic below shows UO’s overall waste management trajectory over the past nearly 30 years.

In this second graph, landfilled materials appear below the 0 line and materials recycled, composted, reused, or otherwise diverted from the landfill are above the 0 line. The “peaks and valleys” show the relative amounts and changes over time.

This visualization reveals some interesting information. First, the recently-tracked Construction and Demolition (C&D) data shows the tremendous impact from this area of waste diversion. The data also show that UO is recycling less paper but this can be explained by reduced need for paper as school and work activities increasingly occur in digital formats. Food diverted to composting is another area of growth in the past decade, although a drop occurred in 2019 due to changes in the local hauler’s policies due to contamination issues. These types of challenges underscore the importance of UO’s waste education initiatives and overall community responsibility. Hover over both graphs to see more specific information for each year.

SOLID WASTE AND ZERO WASTE

MISSION STATEMENT

Promoting excellence in waste management, recycling and composting service, environmental and sustainability education, and operational sustainability strategies to the university community while attaining reduction, reuse, and recycling goals.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

The Solid Waste program manages the recycling, compost, and trash produced by ongoing activities on the University of Oregon campus. The Program’s responsibilities fall into two categories: managing landfill waste and managing recycling and compost through the Zero Waste Program. Solid waste management includes daily garbage collection, waste diversion efforts, and maintenance and oversight of solid waste collection sites. The solid waste team is part of Campus Planning and Facilities Management (CPFM), and its primary mission is to perform routine services in a timely manner and within budget. 

Among U.S. universities, UO has long been at the forefront of campus-wide conservation and recycling efforts. UO students founded the Zero Waste program in the 1990s and this program has spearheaded waste reduction efforts on campus since.  Zero Waste reduces the University’s greenhouse gas (GHG) production by facilitating state-of-the-art waste reduction, recycling, and recovery efforts on campus. Zero Waste employs a team of students who gain hands-on training through paid positions that are funded through the Associated Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO). The program partners with other schools, local and regional governments, and state and national recycling associations to promote and develop waste reduction and recovery opportunities.  

 On the UO campus, Zero Waste participates in the following sustainability efforts: 

  • Conducts periodic operational waste-reduction training for university staff.
  • Partners with the Office of Sustainability on outreach efforts that teach the campus community how to participate in reduction and recycling activities. 
  • Partners with the Student Sustainability Center to provide reuse opportunities through its reusable water bottle program and the Reusable Office Supply Exchange (ROSE). 

In concert with UO Dining Services, Solid Waste handles organic waste from food so that it can be composted. Dining Services composts “back of the house” food waste, including scraps from food preparation and uneaten food that is not able to be donated. Dining Services also oversees a reusable dishware program in campus dining venues where the default option for most orders is reusable dishware that diners can take with them and bring back and their convenience. (See the Food and Dining section for more information on how Dining Services minimizes waste.) Solid Waste also manages an optional composting program for campus offices.

In addition to the Solid Waste program, the Office of Sustainability and Business Affairs collaborate on reuse efforts to find new homes for used furniture and other items. Business Affairs facilitates the user-to-user surplus exchange program. Office of Sustainability manages UO Surplus, which includes items from the Business Affairs exchange as well as collaborations with other campus stakeholders such as UO Housing, UO Libraries, Design and Construction, and others. UO Surplus items are free to members of the UO community for on-campus use. The program also offers frequent public sales to find new homes for usable items. Last, the Student Sustainability Center manages the Reusable Office Supplies Exchange or R.O.S.E. Room, which offers free reusable office supplies, water bottles, clothing, and more.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

The Solid Waste team includes five full-time staff plus 15-25 student employees working in the Zero Waste program specifically. They receive supervision from leadership in Facilities Services and office support from Finance and Administration Shared Services. The program is part of the Facilities Services team, which includes other Environmental Services groups—Custodial Services, Landscape and Grounds Maintenance, and Fleet Services—Building Systems (automation, electrical, mechanical and plumbing, and structures and support teams), and Work Management (asset reliability, construction services, and work control center). The Solid Waste team is committed to providing the best waste management services possible to ensure that the maximum possible amount of campus waste is diverted from landfills. 

UNIVERSITY POLICY 

UO’s Climate Action Plan mandates a reduction of campus-wide GHG emissions. CAP 2 commits the University to the following specific goals: 

  • To reduce GHG emissions
  • To reduce reliance on carbon-emitting energy sources
  • To transition to more sustainable and economical energy sources for thermal utility production and distribution 

CAP 2 outlines the following specific actions: 

  1. LEED gold certification continues to be required in all newly constructed buildings.
  2. The University must seek to reduce its GHG emissions to 25% less than what is allowable by 2014 Oregon code. (*Note: Oregon GHG regulations consistently increase efficiency requirements over time. The 2014 code is therefore highly efficient, so this new commitment actually seeks to reduce emissions to lower levels than CAP 1.0 required). 

 The Solid Waste and Zero Waste Programs’ reduction, diversion, recycling, and education efforts contribute meaningfully to GHG reduction on campus. 

OPERATIONS

Garbage Hauling and Waste Reduction Services

CPFM’s garbage hauling service offers dumpster and public waste collection services for the University of Oregon.  Rear load dumpster services run six days per week and service over 100 garbage dumpsters on campus and within the City of Eugene. Two equipment operators conduct these operations. Solid Waste performs additional collections at special events, including home football games, Street Faire, and campus Move-In and Move-Out. The solid waste collected from campus is transported to SaniPac’s EcoSort Facility in Glenwood, OR before being transported to the Juno facility in Toledo, OR, a leading-edge recovery and waste handling facility.

Office of Sustainability also provides outreach and education during biannual Street Faire, as well as additional staffing, outreach, and education support during Move-In and Move-out, including managing a sizable donation drive in spring for students moving out of campus residence halls.

Recycled Materials Processing

Zero Waste Program staff collects materials from campus recycling locations and centralizes them to the program’s facility.  The Zero Waste Program’s full-time staff and student employees utilize a uniquely designed mechanized cart and barrel tipper to safely dump materials onto a custom-built sorting table. Staff hand-sorts materials into bins, thereby ensuring a clean and accurate waste and recycling stream. Materials are then prepared and staged into their respective categories for delivery.

Glass/Metal/Plastic are sorted into deposit and non-deposit categories corresponding to the state of Oregon’s Bottle Deposit Law.  The program receives $.10 per deposit bottle collected. All non-deposit containers are collected and sent to the SaniPac EcoSort facility.  

Other items collected include:

  • paper
  • cardboard 
  • reusable items
  • toner cartridges
  • Styrofoam
  • electronics 
  • scrap metal
  • aerosols
  • hardbound books
  • and some hazardous materials

Recycling Materials Guide

Solid Waste maintains a materials handling guide that details the many different types of collection categories and processes on campus. The largest recycling categories include cardboard, paper, food scraps, glass, metal, and plastic bottles and jugs. Collection bins across campus include signage that provides instructions about how to separate these recyclable materials from the trash that ends up in landfills. 

Other special materials detailed in the Materials Handling Guide include aluminum can pop-tabs, block Styrofoam, construction materials, non-bottle glass, industrial materials, printing cartridges, light bulbs, and many other hard-to-recycle materials. In addition to recycling, the Zero Waste Program supports non-routine services including: 

  • surplus property collection and sales
  • water bottle lost and found / reuse program
  • the Reusable Office Supply Exchange store
  • surplus furniture management

Compost Processing

Zero Waste staff collects and processes the campus’s pre-consumer food scraps. Food scraps are collected from dining halls across campus in the program’s compost vehicle and delivered directly to Rexius’s facility. Rexius, a local landscaping company, converts the food scraps into compost. Their processing site is in Coburg, OR.

Secondary Market Sales 

  1. International Paper provides rear-load cardboard collection services for the University of Oregon five days per week for all general fee and housing/dining services venues. 
  2. Solid Waste works with UO libraries and the Portland campus to accept hard-bound books for recycling.
  3. SaniPac is a third-party hauler that services garbage and recycling collection sites within athletic venues at the university. SaniPac also services roll-off containers located in the CPFM for garbage and wood waste.  

Customer Services

Solid Waste responds to customer service requests through the Work Control Center’s ticketing system. Common requests include office clean-outs, events, and other one-off needs. Additional fees for labor and service generally apply. 

Construction Standards Related to Waste Management

The Solid Waste program offers guidance and support for new construction projects and renovations on the UO campus. The program also provides:

  • waste recovery during demolition and construction
  • guidelines and standards for zero waste and garbage systems
  • equipment implementation instructions

Solid Waste provides a detailed overview of the equipment required when outfitting campus spaces for waste and recycling disposal. The chart provided includes information about the type of garbage, recycling, or compost collection equipment that should be built or placed into a building based on the specific building or room type. 

GOALS and ACTION ITEMS

GOAL: Respond effectively to market forces and governmental policies.

ACTION ITEMS:

  • Stay current on local and regional changes to recycling and waste policies.
  • Establish practices that capitalize on local and regional funding opportunities. 
  • Update Zero Waste Program communication in response to state changes in recycling and waste policies.
  • Develop a strategic response to upcoming cardboard collection rate changes. 
  • Collaborate and communicate with the City of Eugene, Lane County, UO Environmental Health and Safety, and UO Office of Sustainability to share information about upcoming changes and potential funding opportunities.
  • Explore future possibilities around post-consumer composting at dining halls.

GOAL: Develop waste management best practices for UO construction projects and advocate for their implementation.

  • Advocate for covered, secure recycling and solid waste collection sites on campus.
  • Advocate for design and construction standards that maximize buildings’ capacity for recycling collection and waste diversion. 

GOAL: Pursue maximum level of solid waste diversion on the UO campus.

  • Advocate for improved waste diversion at UO athletic events.
  • Examine building waste profiles and audits to discover areas for improvement.