| Overall Rating | Silver |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 60.22 |
| Liaison | Lacey Raak |
| Submission Date | Feb. 10, 2022 |
California State University, Monterey Bay
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.47 / 8.00 |
Lacey
Raak Sustainability Director Campus Planning and Development |
Figures needed to determine total waste generated (and diverted):
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Materials recycled | 574 Tons | 678.70 Tons |
| Materials composted | 337.08 Tons | 26.91 Tons |
| Materials donated or re-sold | 29.24 Tons | 46.75 Tons |
| Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion | 0 Tons | 0 Tons |
| Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator | 982.08 Tons | 1,195.16 Tons |
| Total waste generated | 1,922.40 Tons | 1,947.52 Tons |
A brief description of the residual conversion facility:
Although sorting does occur on campus. Campus materials are sent to a waste recovery facility that does sort some material. The new MRF is on-line as of reporting year 2018, which provides a 65% diversion rate. The compost materials are sent to an anaerobic digester which produces methane that is used to power an adjacent water treatment facility.
Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
| Start Date | End Date | |
| Performance Period | Jan. 1, 2020 | Dec. 31, 2020 |
| Baseline Period | Jan. 1, 2013 | Dec. 31, 2013 |
A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:
This baseline year was chosen because it was the first full year with our new waste hauler, GreenWaste Recovery Inc., who provided compost, landfill and recylcing data by weight. Our previous hauler Waste Management provided data by a volume to waste conversion. An audit found that the campus was grossly over-serviced and went from 3x/week pick up to 1x/week pick up. Compost pick up was also added in 2013.
Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Number of students resident on-site | 396 | 2,690 |
| Number of employees resident on-site | 10 | 254 |
| Number of other individuals resident on-site | 0 | 0 |
| Total full-time equivalent student enrollment | 6,940 | 6,003 |
| Full-time equivalent of employees | 1,077 | 1,036 |
| Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education | 6,823 | 196 |
| Weighted campus users | 997 | 5,868.25 |
Total waste generated per weighted campus user:
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Total waste generated per weighted campus user | 1.93 Tons | 0.33 Tons |
Percentage reduction in total waste generated per weighted campus user from baseline:
Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator by recycling, composting, donating or re-selling, performance year:
Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator (including up to 10 percent attributable to post-recycling residual conversion):
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) | Yes |
A brief description of other materials the institution has recycled, composted, donated and/or re-sold:
Pallets, office supplies, donated items (including furniture) are reused, not recycled. Carpet, batteries, paint and tires are recycled. Plant materials are reused or composted.
Materials intended for disposal but subsequently recovered and reused on campus, performance year:
Does the institution use single stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:
Does the institution use dual stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:
Does the institution use multi-stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:
Average contamination rate for the institution’s recycling program:
A brief description of any recycling quality control mechanisms employed:
Sustainability Student Staff, GreenWaste Recovery employee, and CSUMB facilities provided outreach, education, and on-the-ground support and monitoring of dumpsters during move out in the past years. New signage was deployed above the three bin system which exhibits images of the most common waste on campus above the correct bin, additionally, 3D lids were considered for this same purpose in 2020 and purchased for the following year. In December of 2020, CSUMB’s Cabinet approved the implementation of centralized three-stream waste systems in all academic buildings on campus, which aims to increase compost collection, further divert organic waste from the landfill, and subsequently reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Composting food scraps at local composting facilities.
- Yard trimmings are collected and reused or sent to a local composting facility.
- Electronic waste (e-waste) collection is available to campus users, with multiple collection sites and is collected by Facilities. Any e-waste is first "decommissioned" by property management and sent to IT, where it can be evaluated for potential re-use on campus. CSUMB faculty or staff can submit a work order if additional e-waste collection is necessary.
A brief description of the institution's waste-related behavior change initiatives:
The Sustainability Student Staff gave waste training presentations on online orientations and throughout online platforms to students, staff and faculty for the academic year 2020-2021. Signage was updated to reflect the change from Starbucks' plastic and paper cold and hot cups to mostly compostable cups and straws. Residential Advisors were provided with a winter move-out bulletin board that provided information on proper waste sorting and locations of donation stations and dumpsters.
A brief description of the institution's waste audits and other initiatives to assess its materials management efforts and identify areas for improvement:
Waste audits were conducted at the library in both spring and fall 2019. Recycling, landfill, and food waste were held for several days and then weighed, sorted, and weighed again by sustainability students, Zero Waste Ambassadors, GreenWaste Recovery, and other volunteers. The purpose of the audit was to identify commonly mis-sorted items and assess the effectiveness of outreach and education efforts on campus. Results showed that library users were contaminating the recycling and food waste streams less, but they were placing recyclable and compostable materials into the landfill stream at a higher rate. Thus for the 2020 year CSUMB planned to purchase vue lids to improve the library waste stream contamination. These lids display commonly disposed 3D items in the library, such as imitation food (apple, banana, sandwiches), coffee cups, utensils, clean and soiled napkins and more. Library users can then visually identify which common items go in the respective bins.
A brief description of the institution's procurement policies designed to prevent waste:
Our procurement policies follow the CSU general provisions which can be found here: http://www.calstate.edu/CSP/crl/GP/GP.shtml
The university is also using the State Agency's Buy Recycle Campaign to guide our purchasing practices.
Contracts with key vendors, including food service, custodial, and landscape management all have waste minimization and management requirements detailed in a scope of work. Chosen firms are selected based on their ability to minimize wastes at CSUMB.
A brief description of the institution's surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:
We do not have a formal office supplies reuse program on our campus, but some offices on campus take the initiative in their own hands. For example, the Campus Planning and Development department cleans out office spaces frequently when staff move office spaces. The Campus Planning and Developing Department collects all the leftover supplies and first offers the supplies to their own office, then the entire campus population by word of mouth. If items are left over, some staff from Campus Planning and Development take the left over supplies to local schools in their area.
The university’s Business and Support Services provides the option of State Surplus purchasing through PublicSurplus.com and the facilities department uses this option.
A brief description of the institution's platforms to encourage peer-to-peer exchange and reuse:
--
A brief description of the institution's limits on paper and ink consumption:
Each student is allotted about 100 pages to print per semester. The ink is also only in black and white. We do not mandate double sided printing, but it is the default for all printers on campus. Professors don't usually require printed documents because they want to keep everything electronic. Offices have centralized printers that are set to print double-sided as the default.
A brief description of the institution's initiatives to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:
Most professors have online versions of documents in order to reduce the need for printing, however there are circumstances when documents need to be printed, but typically this documents are printed double sided and sized to reduce paper prints. Our campus does not print the course catalog anymore in order to reduce printing, you can find all resources online. In 2020, classes switched to online classes in March of 2020, thus all material became available online.
A brief description of the institution's program to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:
For residential move-in, we recruit volunteers to be the "Otter Welcome Team". Their job requires them to direct new residents, help them move and direct movers to the appropriate waste bins to recycle cardboard and other items.
For move-out, volunteers are recruited as the zero waste team. The zero waste team members are assigned a location on campus where they direct movers to the appropriate diversion stations (landfill, recycling or donations). We have extra roll off bins brought to each residential hall from our waste hauler in order to eliminate overflow in already existing dumpsters. Volunteers are stationed at each roll off station so they can intercept anyone who may be throwing away items in the wrong place. Donation bins for food, clothing, furniture etc. are placed in every residential hall for increased diversion from the landfill. These donation items are picked up by local non-profits for donation distribution in our community. New signage was deployed above the three bin system which exhibits images of the most common waste on campus above the correct bin.
A brief description of the institution's programs or initiatives to recover and reuse other materials intended for disposal:
Procurement policy portion, online purchasing (recycled content purchases), and EC swaps/garage sale (Leon Habrik). Also, contracts with vendors require waste minimization and contractors are selected based on their ability to do so. Yard trimmings or plant material is collected and reused by the landscaping company or sent to a local composting facility, tree trimmings are put in wood chipper & the company reuses it as mulch.
Website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization and diversion efforts is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Baseline year was a demolition year.
Baseline year was a demolition year.
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.