Christopher Newport University
OP-11: Materials Management

Christopher Newport University recycles scrap metal through SIMS Recycling, sells usable state owned items from departments for resale on Gov Deals, recycles surplus IT supplies through Powerhouse recycling in North Carolina, and recently partnered with the Newport News Fire Department to salvage pallets for burn exercises.  All items sold and recycled are recorded on a spreadsheet and includes items such as bikes, vehicles, furniture, and more. 

Donations have also been made in the past to the community for leftover sanitation supplies from COVID and certain furniture surplused from building renovations.

Christopher Newport University conducts a campus-wide donation program each year during move out in April where individuals can donate clothes in any condition, non-perishable food, electronics in any condition, decor, and furniture in usable condition.  While geared primarily towards students, anyone can donate to the GiveItUP program; in which non-food donations are given to Goodwill and food donations are given to the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank.  Drop off locations include locations in 1st floor multi-purpose rooms of the 8 main campus residence halls, and an outdoor drop-off permanent birdbox location for upperclassmen on East Campus.   

While the program is relatively new with April 2024 being the fourth year, it has continued to grow over the years with 2024 having the most lbs donated at around 4100 lbs, representing approximately 8% diversion of the total move-out waste.  

With that said, there is area for improvement where considerations will be made regarding additional floor level drop off locations, solutions for longer term housing of 10-12 months, more permanent locations for year round (we have one permanent location), additional partnerships with donation and recycling centers (toppers and mattresses), and potentially a closed loop system in the future where items are stored for reuse the following semester vs. donation.  The GiveItUP donation program is coordinated by the Sustainability Specialist within Facilities Management in collaboration with Housing and Residence Life. 

Separate from the move-out program, the Center for Community Engagement also organizes a campaign to collect canned goods in November for the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank.  Faculty, staff, and students are all encouraged to donate to this. 

Although Christopher Newport does not have a compost program in place, there are active talks and planning to create both a financially and environmentally viable program for dining halls and events.  Several in-vessel composting systems are being evaluated in collaboration with the City of Newport News, in which compost would be available in two weeks to use on grounds or donate to the city.  More research is needed to see the viability of compostable packaging and some landscape debris in these systems.    

CNU piloted a striving for Zero Waste Campaign for the 5 football games in Fall 2024 and used a compost hauler to collect the materials.  Many items from concessions were converted to compostable and/or recyclable with a 55% diversion for the highest game.  Although 90% was not achieved, a roadmap was created and a couple products were phased out over the year and alternatives will be purchased for Fall 2025.  The University will build on this success for football, and pilot some basketball games in January and February 2025.  Compostable packaging is accepted in this hauling program. 

Lastly, CNU does compost leaves and branches from grounds.  These are stored in a central landscape debris lot and transported to an off-site facility in Newport News, VA that is able to process the material.  

At Christopher Newport University, we may have one of the best reusable programs in the country, with 100% reusable take-out containers in our 2 main dining halls with individual tracking of each container using a QR code and software system through the company Reuzzi.  

This program was first evaluated in 2022 when, during a tabling event, the Sustainability Specialist noticed about 95% of individuals using disposable containers instead of reusable, as there was a choice at the time and disposable was too convenient.  

Numbers were ran and research was conducted on three companies that provide similar software and a conversation with Auxiliary and Dining (in-house) gave the go-ahead for 100% reusables in the dining halls.  The company Reuzzi was chosen to track them from check-out to check-in and gamified reuse by giving rewards points and climate badges. 

In the first year, 128,593 verified returns with a 96% return rate was accomplished; although there were some concerns as 5,000 boxes were lost; primarily due to loopholes.  Updates over Summer 2024 included more accountability measures with check-out limits, charging $5 for 2 lost containers, screenshot restrictions, and an online sweepstakes rewards system to help alleviate some of the challenges faced.   

With the changes for the Green2Go Reusables program, it is anticipated for closer to a 98-99% return rate for AY 24-25 and a case study is planned to be posted to AASHE in the future.  The current main issues include the drying of the plastic reusable containers, the brand we use tends to break easily, and we decided to just have drop-off locations at the dining halls to ease logistics.  The QR code and software can be placed on any container, so my main suggestion is to really research the containers, as I was aiming to switch companies, but we stayed with the company we were using prior when there was an option of reusable and disposable.  

To discuss more about this program, please email sustainability@cnu.edu     

I would recommend a 100% reusable program to any campus as it is both a very large financial gain for dining after initial investment and has had a significant reduction in waste and contamination in recycling as we were using compostable take-out containers prior.  I foresee this program expanding to other areas in the future and see it working as an opt-in compost program as well. 

As a public institution, CNU adheres to the state of Virginia's executive orders; particularly EO77 to eliminate the use of plastic, which was later replaced with EO17 to encourage waste reduction and recycling.  

Although the University is no longer required to eliminate plastics, much work was made on packaging within dining halls to transition items to compostable.  Take-out containers were transitioned to compostable and are now transitioned to 100% reusable since 2023, all straws on campus are compostable, and many items such as nacho trays, utensils, coffee cups, and popcorn boxes within athletic concessions are now compostable.

While much progress has been made, there have been some issues with acquiring aluminum water bottles from Coke as these were supplied under EO77, but were quickly taken away once EO77 was replaced with EO17 to encourage recycling.  Some of the currently supplied bottles are 100% recycled plastic, but this needs more research, and aluminum is preferred due to recycling efficiency. 

Some other opportunities for improvement include plastic clamshells in retail locations, condiment packets and cups at licensed retailers, and fountain drink cups at football, as we are striving for Zero Waste (90% diversion) at the 5K capacity stadium. 

Progress has been made with installing water refill stations and there may be a future initiative to eliminate the sale of water bottles completely and gamify individuals who choose to use reusable water bottles.  

All university owned electronics used by employees are first surplused through IT to be wiped of any data and are then transferred to the warehouse for recycling, in which they are collected from Powerhouse Recycling in North Carolina.

Batteries and ink cartridges are also sent to the warehouse for proper recycling.  CNU has made great strides in reducing alkaline batteries by replacing all automatic paper towel dispensers with touchless pull-down dispensers by Solaris and is in the process of replacing battery soap dispensers with solar powered dispensers provided by Rubbermaid. These decisions have been proven beneficial for labor operations, costs, and the environment.  

Christopher Newport University's (CNU) Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Department has a hazardous waste management program that aligns with state and federal requirements for Small Quantity Generators.  The EHS Department engages on-campus waste generators in efforts to reduce the use of hazardous materials through education, awareness, and training.  The CNU Laboratory Safety and Compliance Committee includes partners who encourage and implement the reduction in hazardous materials.  

For more information regarding Hazardous Waste at CNU, please review the Hazardous & Regulated Waste Procedures Manual.