Overall Rating	Bronze - expired
Overall Score	26.01
Liaison	Doug Oetter
Submission Date	March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

Georgia College & State University
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	2.81 / 8.00	Doug Oetter Professor History and Geography

"---" 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	62.65 Tons	19.54 Tons
Materials composted	8 Tons	2 Tons
Materials donated or re-sold	1 Tons	0.10 Tons
Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion	0 Tons	0 Tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator	753.93 Tons	847.17 Tons
Total waste generated	825.58 Tons	868.81 Tons

If reporting post-recycling residual conversion, provide:

A brief description of the residual conversion facility:

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

	Start Date	End Date
Performance Period	July 1, 2018	June 30, 2019
Baseline Period	Jan. 1, 2015	Dec. 31, 2015

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:

2015 marks the first year that the Office of Sustainability in our Facilities Operations department was fully developed with a director, assistant director, and student workers.

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	2,219	2,195
Number of employees resident on-site	40	40
Number of other individuals resident on-site	0	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	6,873	6,439
Full-time equivalent of employees	1,033	1,033
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	231	231
Weighted campus users	6,321	5,989.50

Total waste generated per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total waste generated per weighted campus user	0.13 Tons	0.15 Tons

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

9.96

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:

8.68

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

8.68

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	No
Furniture	Yes
Residence hall move-in/move-out waste	Yes
Scrap metal	Yes
Pallets	Yes
Tires	No
Other (please specify below)	No

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

Pallets: the Facilities Inventory Department saves them and then allows for GC community members to reuse them.

Movein/Moveout: We host a move-in cardboard recycling campaign and a move-out Dodge the Dump campaign.

Furniture: Most unwanted university furniture goes to surplus, but it will eventually be landfilled if it stays there for too long.

Electronics: We recycle cables and wires, but no other electronics such as TVs, printers, cellphones, etc.

White goods: If it is primarily made out of metal, then we recycle it at a local metal scrap business. For example, we recycled a bunch of old hot water heaters about a year ago that were taken out of the Village Apartments.

Cooking Oil: Sodexo recycled all of their used cooking oil.

Optional Fields

Active Recovery and Reuse

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

2 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?:

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

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Contamination and Discard Rates

Average contamination rate for the institution’s recycling program:

17.40

A brief description of any recycling quality control mechanisms employed:

In 2019, we conducted a semester-long waste audit in four of the academic buildings on campus and calculated a 17.4% contamination rate in our single-stream recycling bins.

Building Services staff (custodians) are trained to be quality control monitors. They are allowed to remove contaminants from recycling.

Programs and Initiatives

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

The Georgia College Nudge Unit is a student research group applying behavioral economic principles to solving problems on campus and in the community. The students have created a multi-tiered analysis of using signage and advertising to inform recycling in academic buildings across campus. The group is working with waste management interns from the Office of Sustainability to develop clear communications about which items go in which bins.

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

The Environmental Science Club has led bi-annual waste audits of residential, academic, and grounds trash/recycling. The Office of Sustainability conducts regular assessments of waste and recycling collection, including efforts to monitor contamination of our single-stream recycling.

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

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

The university surpluses all materials according to state law. Furniture and equipment is first advertised on an email 'For Sale' list (even though it's free), and then stored for a period of time onsite. Users are encouraged to come look through the furniture before buying new items.
https://www.gcsu.edu/materials-management

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

The Office of Sustainability works with the Environmental Science Club, sororities, and other groups to sponsor clothes swaps before the end of the academic year.
https://gcgogreen.org/2020/11/10/zero-waste-week/

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

Departments have budgets for copying and must work within their allocation. The Student Government Association encourages faculty to provide all course materials in Desire 2 Learn (course management system) and to promote the use of digital textbooks.

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

We stopped printing catalogs in 2012. Most purchase and procurement forms are paperless now.

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

We have been successful with cardboard collection during move-in, with almost two tons collected. During move-out, our 'Dodge the Dumpster' program collects furniture, cleaning materials, clothing, appliances, and other items. The sales benefit local charities.

https://gcgreen.wordpress.com/2017/05/16/2017-dodge-the-dump/

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

We have invested heavily in our recycling recovery, and recently placed 200 new paired bins in academic and support buildings, and also improved the design of our residential recycling bins to reduce consumer confusion.

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

https://gcgreen.wordpress.com/materials-recovery-and-recycling/

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.