Overall Rating	Gold
Overall Score	71.29
Liaison	Holly Andersen
Submission Date	March 30, 2022

STARS v2.2

Bennington College
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	5.74 / 8.00

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Parts 1 and 2. Waste per person

Figures needed to determine total waste generated (and diverted):

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Materials recycled	65.59 Metric tons	76.48 Metric tons
Materials composted	63.59 Metric tons	58.69 Metric tons
Materials donated or re-sold	0.91 Metric tons	0.91 Metric tons
Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion	0 Metric tons	0 Metric tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator	9.74 Metric tons	71.12 Metric tons
Total waste generated	139.83 Metric tons	207.20 Metric tons

If reporting post-recycling residual conversion, provide:

A brief description of the residual conversion facility:

N/A

Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):

	Start Date	End Date
Performance Period	July 1, 2020	June 30, 2021
Baseline Period	July 1, 2018	June 30, 2019

If end date of the baseline year/period is 2004 or earlier, provide:

A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:

This is our Third year reporting, so last year was our baseline year.

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	735	735
Number of employees resident on-site	461	461
Number of other individuals resident on-site	39	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	735	735
Full-time equivalent of employees	461	461
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	136	3
Weighted campus users	933.50	1,082.25

Total waste generated per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total waste generated per weighted campus user	0.15 Metric tons	0.19 Metric tons

Percentage reduction in total waste generated per weighted campus user from baseline:

21.76

Part 3. Waste diverted from the landfill or incinerator

Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator by recycling, composting, donating or re-selling, performance year:

93.03

Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator (including up to 10 percent attributable to post-recycling residual conversion):

93.03

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	No
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)	No

A brief description of other materials the institution has recycled, composted, donated and/or re-sold:

The College has comingled recycling, we scrap all metal, compost, and donate to local charities. We repurpose items when we can and give to salvage yards.

Optional Fields

Active Recovery and Reuse

Materials intended for disposal but subsequently recovered and reused on campus, performance year:

0 Metric tons

Recycling Management

Does the institution use single stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:

Yes

Does the institution use dual stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:

Yes

Does the institution use multi-stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:

Yes

Contamination and Discard Rates

Average contamination rate for the institution’s recycling program:

28.50

A brief description of any recycling quality control mechanisms employed:

We use an outside vendor to perform all separating and cleaning of recycling. We have many separate containers to help keep debris out of the recycling.

Programs and Initiatives

A brief description of the institution's waste-related behavior change initiatives:

We performed this student led initiative. The students volunteered--one 1st street colonial, one 2nd, one 70s, and one 00s house as experiments for zero waste in the fall term which will include using composting and not using plastic bags in trash bags, as well as encouraging a challenge for houses to produce less waste. This time will be used to see what problems or solutions in this new waste sorting. With hopeful success, plastic bags can be further removed from other houses and buildings down the semester.

A brief description of the institution's waste audits and other initiatives to assess its materials management efforts and identify areas for improvement:

N/A

A brief description of the institution's procurement policies designed to prevent waste:

The IT office went though removed personal printers, donated, installed communal printers. The communal printers had monitoring devices on them so that each person had to swipe their card to have the amount of paper they were using tracked. Paper use went down significantly.

A brief description of the institution's surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:

N/A

A brief description of the institution's platforms to encourage peer-to-peer exchange and reuse:

We have a college thrift store where all aspects of things a college student could want/need are available. It is need based, so if students need pens, book, clothes and have very few resources--they can just take what they need.

A brief description of the institution's limits on paper and ink consumption:

Please see above. We are working on a formal policy.

A brief description of the institution's initiatives to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:

Again, this is being developed with collaboration with IT.

A brief description of the institution's program to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:

At the campus thrift store, students are encouraged to go through their belongings before move out and donate items to the thrift store. Whatever is left over after move out is boxed up and donated to charity.

A brief description of the institution's programs or initiatives to recover and reuse other materials intended for disposal:

In development, will have more updates in our next round of reporting.

Website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization and diversion efforts is available:

https://www.bennington.edu/sustainability-bennington

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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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.