California State University, San Marcos
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion

As described on our Safety, Health and Sustainability website, "Emerald Energy and Bio-INergy are sustainable alternatives offered by Ingenium for recycling biological waste. Instead of going into a landfill, this waste is sent to a specialized combustion chamber that heats boilers to produce steam. The steam rises and is captured by a turbine which generates electricity that is exported to the local power grid. Excess steam is condensed and returned to the boilers, creating a closed-loop. Any material not fully combusted results in ash that can be reused to make concrete, roadbed, or other building materials."

https://www.csusm.edu/shs/safetyprograms/bioemeraldenergy.html

The baseline was chosen as this is a plateau period for building additions.

We do our best to properly donate, re-sell, recycle or compost any items before discarding supplies to the landfill. Any item that is usable but no longer wanted by the campus is either sold via public surplus or donated to charity. We have a strong relationship with a charity that collects items and distributes them to schools in Mexico. This provides us the opportunity to donate items that local charities would most likely not accept. We also donate trash and recycle bins to this charity to encourage proper disposal in their schools. We also work closely with Goodwill to donate various items including office supplies, dorm supplies, and clothes.



3 ring binders and hanging file folders are disassembled to recycle the cardboard/paper and metal parts.
VHS tapes & similar materials are disassembled into recyclable parts. Electronic waste is collected and recycled.

Students working on their capstone project have worked on completing waste audits to help determine contamination levels and gain a better understanding of what education is needed. These projects occur in coordination with the Sustainability program and custodial staff. In coordination with our waste hauler, we conduct a campus-wide waste characterization study each semester. One semester is focused on landfill waste to determine areas where additional education is needed and areas upstream to develop reduction programs. The second semester is focused on the recycled waste stream to determine contaminates.

The Zero Waste Program has evolved with the addition of our Zero Waste & Sustainability Specialist. Current efforts focus more on reducing waste upstream and utilizing the resources we already have on campus with the creation of our Zero Waste Donation Pick Up Form and Reuse Supplies Form. We promote the Zero Waste Donation Pick Up Form as an alternative to discarding usable supplies. Through this form the Sustainability program is able to streamline these requests to pick up usable office supplies such as binders, books, and desk organizers. The collected material is then stored and redistributed back to the campus community through events and the Reuse Supplies Form. The Reuse Supplies Form is used by staff to request supplies needed to reduce purchasing new materials. These efforts have made re-use more common practice on our campus.

We also host an annual Journey to Zero Waste Fair, which used to be called Thank You for Recycling Event. This event is used to promote zero waste efforts, and redistribute the office supplies that is continuously being collected. Clothes collected from our move-out program are also available for students and campus community members to take for free. Students, staff and faculty can play zero waste sorting games to get re-usable promotional items such as metal straws, utensil sets, tote bags and reusable snack bags, just to name a few.

At move-out we collect household items and provide items to new residents at move-in to encourage re-use and provide a sustainable experience from the very beginning of their college career.

Students working on their capstone project have worked on completing waste audits to help determine contamination levels and gain a better understanding of what education is needed.
Additionally, twice a year our waste hauler performs a formal waste audit. We alternate waste streams (recycle vs trash) to review both annually. One day of waste is collected from the entire campus then taken to their facility for inspection, pictures and evaluation for program improvement.

An environmentally preferable purchasing policy is in place. Additionally, our supplier for office supplies has an automated sustainable exchange program in place.

The University is expected to dispose of usable equipment in a responsible manner under the guidance of Property Surplus. This is done via transfers on campus, to other universities, public sales, donations, recycling and salvage of parts.
https://www.csusm.edu/fdmadmin/distributionservices/propertycontrol.html

For the CSU Administration of University Property Equipment Procedures, please visit: https://calstate.policystat.com/policy/11206798/latest/

The University steps for moving to zero waste are: 1)the use of products that minimize the volume of trash sent to landfill or incinerators; 2) participation in the CalRecycle Buy-Recycled program or equivalent; and (3) increasing recycled content purchases in all BuyRecycled program product categories.

For the CSU Sustainability Policy, please visit: https://calstate.policystat.com/policy/6987526/latest/

For the CSU Buy Recycled Program, please visit: http://www.calstate.edu/csp/special-programs/

Surplus items are sold through a public auction website. Items of low value, such as lab glassware, are occasionally donated to our local school district for their use. Surplus office and classroom furniture as a standard policy is reused whenever possible. We host several tabling efforts on campus to offer used office supplies to our campus community while providing education about our zero waste program efforts. Any usable items not suitable to campus use are donated.

Our student groups also collect clothes to host what is called a Cougar Thrifts event, a free exchange event to encourage reuse of clothing, shoes, belts, bags. This event has become quite popular with students.
Additionally, as part of our move-in tabling efforts when we placed household items from move-in, the residents took the initiative to bring out their own unwanted items to share with others.

While there are no limits on consumption, the campus community is encouraged to only print when necessary and to print double sided whenever possible. It is standard for computer printer settings to be set to double sided, black and white printing. Student printing in a variety of locations is limited to 10 pages per day.

Campus catalogs are available online. First Year Student Handbooks are also transitioning to digital versions. Staff is encouraged to print only when necessary. Since COVID there has been a large decline in printing materials. Our campus now uses Adobe sign to sign documents rather than printing them.

In coordination with resident dorms, laborer staff and our waste hauler we made a vast improvement in collecting items for re-use during move-in/move-out. Prior to move-out we post signs, promote on social media and have Resident Assistants send emails about the Crash's Clean Out program, our move-out diversion effort at all 3 housing facilities.

As in the previous years before COVID, clothing, furniture and appliances are donated to Goodwill. Non-perishable food is collected and donated to our on campus food pantry. Household items (dishes, pans, silverware, hangers) were collected and stored over summer break, then made available at move-in to new residents for free.

We are fortunate enough to work with a waste hauler that provides service to divert green waste, CDI (construction, demolition and inert material) and metal (including wiring) from our waste stream. We place a separate container in our Arts building to specifically collect any wood waste to ensure it goes in our CDI container. We also have programs in place to collect and properly dispose of e-waste. We sell pallets to a local vendor so they could continue to be used rather than disposed of as CDI.