Wartburg College
IN-1: Innovation 1

Although recycling in higher education is not innovative, we believe we have taken several steps which are not common practice. In spring 2014 our recycling partner, the City of Waverly, began transitioning their curbside recycling to single stream, placing plastic, paper, and metals in one container. Prior to this change items needed to be sorted. This sorting requirement meant we were able to place few recycling stations in academic areas as they took a lot of space. Most colleges would stop at just adding more containers, but we took the opportunity to make major changes. Our goal of the changes was to increase diversion by placing the waste management process in the hands of the user. First, we added more Recycling and Waste Stations in public areas, within 50 -100 feet of every workspace, allowing easy access for recycling and landfill (trash) items. Prior to this change we had 1-6 stations per building, usually tucked in a corner, away from traffic. The containers are in main traffic paths, and now a very visible part of our campus. The second change was adding side-saddle receptacles, attached to existing containers in offices for waste diversion. Instead of purchasing all new containers, we cleaned up the existing trash containers, added a recycling label, and hung the side-saddles on them for trash collection. The second part of this change asked users to empty their recycling and waste at the stations hallway. Prior to this change, cleaning staff emptied trash containers, but not recycling, and process which deincentivizes users to divert by making it easier to throw stuff away. Our change put landfill and diversion as equals, leaving it to user to chose how to handle their waste. Our cleaning staff no longer have to visit each office to empty trash, saving them time, allowing us to save costs of staffing, which was done through attrition, not layoffs. Third, waste containers were removed from lecture classrooms. Our classrooms do not generate waste, it was not logical to collect waste from them. Just like the national parks service, we ask our student to take out anything they bring in. Signs were provided to help during the transition. Although some colleges have adopted some of these practices, we are unaware of any which has adopted all of them. Asking all your staff, including faculty and administration, campuswide, to take out their own trash, is not common practice and demonstrates the innovative change on campus.

We saw an 86% increase in recycling from 12/13 to 13/14 years. Considering the recycling changes did not actually change until 3/4 of the way through the fiscal year, the changes are more reflective of the increased awareness. Once the changes actually happened, we were unable to get accurate measurements on recycling due to a malfunctioning truck scale. However, we have seen reduction in landfill collection, and believe this is an indicator of changes to come. The equipment has been fixed, and as of January 2015 we have started collecting weights to have data going forward.