Boston University
OP-22: Waste Minimization

Waste audits of the Warren Towers residence hall which includes dorm rooms, offices, study lounges, a mail room, and a laundry room, are performed after the implementation of a new floor-by-floor recycling program. The data collected serves to evaluate the effectiveness of a more convenient waste & recycling system as well as the effectiveness of the educational signage program associated with the program and is used as a reference for waste minimization strategies in other residential buildings on campus.

In February 2011 sustainability@BU began a collaboration with the BU Sourcing & Procurement team and Office Depot to implement the ‘We Bagged the Box’ pilot program, swapping out corrugated cardboard boxes for paper bags for orders under 30 pounds. This switch is expected to save the university approximately 4 tons of wood, 22,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, 25,000 gallons of wastewater and 2,000 pounds of solid waste every year. Office Depot is the primary office supplier for BU, carrying out deliveries campus-wide. So far the “We Bagged the Box” pilot program has been implemented in four departments. It has been met with such success that the University plans to expand in the coming months.

The sustainability@BU Exchange is a free service that allows BU employees to swap items with colleagues around the office and throughout the University. It provides a way to reuse supplies & furniture within the university. To benefit from the service, employees fill out an online form, upload a photo of the item and submit their request. (See http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/campus-resources/reduce-reuse-recycle/exchange/ for more information)

All course catalogs, course schedules and directories are only available online. These documents are no longer printed. (See http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/course-search/ for more details)

In 2009, Boston University enacted a strictly enforced printing quota for all students. Every undergraduate student, faculty member, and staff member is allocated 100 sheets per semester and graduate students are allocated 500 sheets per semester. Double-sided printing is available at all on-campus print center locations. Print allocations are reset each semester and there is a fee for each page that exceeds the allocated limit. (See http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/myprint/help/about.shtml for more information)

In order to reduce waste during the move-out period, Boston University has partnered with Goodwill Industries since spring 2010. The move-out program gives students the opportunity to donate unwanted goods to Goodwill during the last month of the academic year. Collection bins are placed in fifteen convenient locations throughout campus so that students may have easy access to drop-off areas. Goodwill collects clothing and other goods from each location and then sells those items in stores to support important local job training and youth programs. Goodwill, not Landfill is now implemented at the end of each semester to capture all the good stuff students leave behind when they move out of their dorms. The Goodwill, Not Landfill move-out program diverted 100.77 tons of good stuff from landfills in 2014. Since May 2009, this program has diverted 477.84 tons of clothing, electronics, and housewares from the landfill. (http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/campus-resources/move-in/move-out-2/) During move-in, Scarlet Squad volunteers are trained to guide incoming students and families in recycling cardboard. This year, through a coordinated effort with FM&P, Custodial Services, Residence Life, Housing, BUPD, Save That Stuff (BU’s recycling vendor), the Scarlet Squad, and sustainability@BU, the University recycled 113.8 tons of cardboard. (http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/campus-resources/move-in/move-in-cardboard-recycling/)

In February 2011 sustainability@BU began a collaboration with the BU Sourcing & Procurement team and Office Depot to implement the ‘We Bagged the Box’ pilot program, swapping out corrugated cardboard boxes for paper bags for orders under 30 pounds. This switch is expected to save the university approximately 4 tons of wood, 22,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, 25,000 gallons of wastewater and 2,000 pounds of solid waste every year. (See http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/what-were-doing/waste-reduction/we-bagged-the-box-2/ for more information) Since 2009, sustainability@BU has provided reusable coffee mugs to community members who sign up to Join The Challenge, a monthly competition to reduce our environmental footprint. (See http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/what-you-can-do/ten-sustainable-actions/bring-your-own-mug/ for more information)

Waste audits are conducted on an annual basis to track and measure waste disposal. Composting Comes Out is a program of peer education and awareness in the dining hall. Student volunteers help students scrape their leftovers into the compost barrel, which is normally done behind the scenes in the dishroom. Stickers are also handed out to students that have not left any leftovers on their plate, to discourage food waste.

Internal food waste audits are performed on a daily basis in most locations on campus through an Aramark food waste reduction program All food waste is collected in clear containers, weighed, recorded and entered into a database to track progress. The clear containers also give chefs the opportunity to provide feedback to Dining Services' cooks on how to reduce trimming and prep waste.

All residential dining halls are trayless since 2008. The majority of food is also made to order, in order to further reduce waste, and we offer smaller plates and portion sizes for many dishes in our residential dining locations.

At BU's main food court, customers are given the option of using reusable tableware, BPI-certified compostable to-go tableware or a reusable to-go container. Residential dining halls use exclusively reusable tableware. At several other smaller retail locations on campus, compostable to-go containers are used as well. Reusable to-go containers are available for purchase at the student union since September 2011 and can be used at the food court. Customers using the reusable to-go containers are given a $0.25 discount each time it is used. Most other retail locations on campus use BPI-certified compostable tableware, with the exception of some of our national brands. They are used in conjunction with a post-consumer composting program.

All residential dining halls use exclusively reusable dishware. Several food containers, napkins, boxed lunches, takeout containers as well as Starbucks cups use post-consumer recycled content. The majority of disposable tableware (about 90%) purchased at Boston University is compostable and biobased; the rest is recyclable. Twelve out of fourteen locations that offer compostable disposables offer post-consumer composting. Polystyrene was eliminated from campus in 2008.

Dining Services offers a $0.25 reusable mug discount at every coffee-serving location on campus. This discount applies to all drip coffee and tea. A $0.25 discount is also offered for customers that use our reusable to-go container.

All of our staffed catered events on campus are Zero Waste. That means that our compostable tableware is collected on tray stands on the floor of the event instead of trash cans, and retrieved and sorted by our trained waitstaff in the back of the event, between compost and recycling. Very little trash is generated at events. This practice is used across campus, throughout the year, for all size events ranging from 5 to 5,000 people.

While figures entered for the "Weighted Campus Users" calculations are from FY06, sustainability@BU was only able to collect CY06 data for "waste generated." Because both are 12-month time periods and share a 6-month overlap, we regard them as comparable.