Indiana University Bloomington
OP-22: Waste Minimization

We use a consistent 2009 baseline for all of our baseline measurements, across credits and metrics.

Two formal waste audits were completed during the 2012-2013 academic year. Both involved students in service-learning courses; from a Collins Living-Learning Center course taught by Anthropology graduate student, Sara Minard, ten students analyzed classroom litter patterns in some of the largest and most heavily-used classrooms on campus; and from an undergraduate biology course (HUBI B300) taught by Professor Heather Reynolds, three students designed, conducted, and completed an audit of Assembly Hall waste receptacles after a basketball game. During the 2014-2015 academic year, further waste audits were conducted by part-time student employees, with the help of volunteers, in Ballantine Hall, the School of Public Health, the School of Education, and the Psychology building. The audits were conducted before and after the "No Bin Left Behind" (recycling and trash bin co-location) program had been implemented in buildings. The analysis showed that the No Bin Left Behind program was effective in decreasing the contamination rate in waste and recycling streams. The audits also identified the coffee cups as a main contaminant in the recycling stream; meanwhile, plastic bottles and coffee lids and sleeves were the main items trashed which could have been recycled.

The policy of Indiana University is to make maximum use of furniture, equipment, and other such property. The Purchasing Department will attempt to redistribute items within the university based on equitable criteria. Any items no longer required by a department or division will be transferred to Surplus Stores for resale. The major objectives of Surplus Stores are to: redistribute assets within the university, relieve the university of unusable assets, and to reduce landfill refuse. Given these policies and guidelines, Surplus Stores is empowered to offer items for sale to the general public once it is determined that no need for that item exists within the university. Some items that are sent to Surplus Stores are clearly ones that may be needed within the university. Therefore, an area is set aside and designated for university department purchases only. However, the vast majority of items located at Surplus Stores are available for purchase by the general public. In 2015, the Surplus Store launched their "smalls" campaign and now accepts file folders, binders, markers, and other office supplies for resale as well, in addition to furniture and electronic equipment.

One.IU is Indiana University's web-based application portal that provides a common front door to online services at all IU campuses. One.IU offers easier and more direct access to the multitude of services available for students, faculty, and staff. The goal for One.IU is to create a virtual campus community -- a place to study, work, collaborate, and have fun! Course catalogues and schedules are no longer printed, and instead are published online through the Office of the Registrar at: http://registrar.indiana.edu/stu_courseinfo.shtml. Staff directories can all be located under individual departmental websites, and are searchable by individual at people.iu.edu. A campus building directory is available online at: http://www.iub.edu/~iubmap/. Printed campus directories have been eliminated.

The University Information Technology Services (UITS) printing allotment allows users to print in Student Technology Centers and Residential Technology Centers if you have a UITS printing account. Allotments vary according to university status: -Undergraduate students: 650 pages per semester -Graduate and professional students: 1,000 pages per semester -Student organizations: 400 pages per semester -Faculty: 200 pages per semester Students and faculty automatically receive these allotments each semester. These allotments are designed so 85% of students will not incur any additional printing expenses. Student organizations must have a faculty or staff sponsor to be eligible for a printing allotment. If undergraduate, graduate or professional students exceed their print allotment, they will be charged four cents ($0.04) per page. At the end of each semester, student printing totals are tabulated and over quota printing fees are added to the students' bursar bill. Print Less Go Green Campaign Printing is and will always be a part of the university experience. The Print Less Go Green campaign was established to provide information to students regarding ways to reduce printing, while maintaining full access to printing services. From the Print Less Go Green Campaign website: "The Student Technology Centers (STC's) are committed to finding more sustainable ways to provide you with printing on campus. The following are a few of the ways we are doing this: *Improved Wireless Access: UITS continues to improve the speed and availability of its wireless network. Rather than carrying paper documents with you, bring your laptop to campus and have electronic access to all of your course materials. *Improved Printer Accessibility: UITS has introduced printers in more convenient locations, so there is no need to print materials you might need later; there is always a printer nearby so you can print just the pages that you need to print. This also lessens the need for individuals in residence halls to own personal printers, which use large amounts of energy even in their idle state. *Adobe agreement: In 2008, UITS entered into an agreement with Adobe Systems to make available to all students, faculty, and staff, the most popular Adobe software. Adobe Acrobat permits users to mark-up course materials which are downloaded from on-line resources and stored on the user computer or thumb drive. By using Adobe Acrobat, users can avoid printing these material altogether. For more information about the Adobe agreement with IU, please see http://kb.iu.edu/data/axuq.html. *Print Release Stations: In many locations (and more to come) UITS has introduced print release stations as a way to increase student productivity. Print release stations permit the user to avoid printing output: -sent to the printer by mistake -reprinted by mistake -which is longer than expected -when the printer is malfunctioning -when the line at the printer is too long to wait The number of forgotten or duplicate jobs has decreased so much that recycled paper bins which used to require emptying on a daily basis now only must be emptied weekly. We estimate a 10-25% reduction in paper waste as a result of print release stations! See http://kb.iu.edu/data/atsj.html for more information about print release stations and how to use them. *Duplex Capability: Duplex printing (two-sided output) reduces paper usage as well as solid waste. Duplex printing is available in all UITS Student Technology Centers (STCs) at IUB and IUPUI, and in all Residential Technology Centers (RTCs) at IUB. See http://kb.iu.edu/data/akez.html to learn more. *Remanufactured Toners: Printing uses more than just paper. The number of toners required to produce the crisp, clean printouts we have at IU is also reduced when we cut back on our printing. The STCs have been using remanufactured toners for many years. Benefits of using remanufactured toners over new toners include: -38,000 tons of waste are kept out of municipal landfills per year on average -New toners require 3 quarts of oil for their production. Remanufactured toners do not require oil for their production. -Our toner remanufacture even reuses the boxes, reducing cardboard waste -Purchasing remanufactured toners typically costs 30% to 50% less than new toners. Over the life of the average printer in the STCs this amounts to over $3500 in savings per machine. *Recycled content paper: UITS is currently piloting a project to better understand the impacts of using recycled-content paper in the STCs. By exploring maintenance and cost differences we can better understand if this is feasible on a larger scale in the STCs. In the spring of 2010 the STC located in the Union will serve as a test to evaluate this. We are always looking for ways to ensure reliable and affordable printing services while improving our environmental impact. *Duplex Printing Testing: UITS will pilot a project to better understand the impacts of setting our printers to duplex (print two sided) by default. This change has the potential to save millions of sheets of paper every year. However, we will explore how such changes affect student habits and our own maintenance patterns to ensure that we continue to meet student needs well. STC's offer 14 tips to help reduce printing: Tip # 1: Reading eReserves online: Reading eReserves online: Unless directed otherwise by your instructor, consider reading eReserves online. For portability, you can also download them to your laptop. Some materials are even suitable for reading on your PDA. Sometimes professors prefer that you bring printed eReserves to class for collaborative study. If you are not sure, ask your professor. Tip # 2: Use electronic storage: If you need to take it with you, save your document or file to My Workspace in Oncourse CL, store it on a USB flash drive, or burn it to a CD or DVD. You can also email documents to yourself as attachments and save them to your personal computer when you get home. For more about file storage options, see http://kb.iu.edu/data/ajay.html. Tip # 3: Consider printing double sided or two-up: To conserve paper, toner, and other printing resources (while stretching your IUB printing allotment or IUPUI Jagtag dollars), consider printing double-sided or 2-up (two pages per sheet). For instructions, see: http://kb.iu.edu/data/aprm.html Tip # 4: Submit assignments electronically: Ask your instructors to accept your assignments electronically (e.g., via Oncourse CL, FTP, or email). Many instructors will. Tip # 5: View document properties: Before printing a document, use print preview to verify that the page count and formatting is correct. This prevents printing blank or unwanted pages. Tip # 6: Copy documents to your PDA: If you need to have your documents and eReserves available to you when you can not access the Internet, copy these documents to your PDA or laptop. Tip # 7: Avoid printing email and web pages: Read email and web pages online. If you need to keep a copy, save it to some form of removable storage media. If you absolutely must print documents stored on the web, download them to your desktop before printing them. This will reduce printing bottlenecks and errors caused by network delays. Tip # 8: Print just once: Be patient when sending print jobs to STC printers. Do not resend the same job multiple times if your output is delayed. Report the problem to the STC consultant. At IUB, if a consultant is not on site, call 812-855-3802 for assistance. Tip # 9: Decrease font size: If you keep a printout for your own use, decreasing the font to the smallest legible size will reduce the number of pages printed. Tip # 10: Use duplex printing: Duplex printing (two-sided output) is effective for lengthy material. (This will not save pages of your IUB printing allotment or reduce your cost of printing at IUPUI, but it will reduce waste paper.) For more, see http://kb.iu.edu/data/akez.html. Tip # 11: Use print preview: Most applications in the STCs have a print preview feature that allows you to see how your printed document will appear so you can catch formatting errors or blank pages before you print. It is also particularly useful when you are printing web pages, which are often much longer than they appear to be. Tip # 12: Run spell check: Use your application#chr(39)#s spell checker to reduce mistakes and avoid reprints. Tip # 13: Print only final copies: Instead of printing draft copies of your work, edit your work online and print only the final copy. Tip # 14: Use smaller margins: Instead of use 1.25” margins, set your documents to use 1” margins to save paper and your allotment." More information regarding the Print Less Go Green campaign can be found at: https://stcweb.stc.indiana.edu/public/gogreen/about.cfm

Hoosier to Hoosier (H2H) is a reuse program that aims 1) to divert reusable items from the landfill during student move-out, 2) to prevent additional resource consumption by selling collected items to students and community members in order 3) to raise funds for local charities and other organizations. Hoosier to Hoosier is a partnership between the City of Bloomington, Indiana University, Cutters Soccer Club (2015), and Monroe County Habitat for Humanity (2010-2014). Funds raised through the Hoosier to Hoosier sale go to a number of local organizations. Our volunteer compensation program allows local organizations to apply to receive a portion of proceeds based on the number of volunteer hours their organization provides to sale efforts. H2H aims to intercept reusable items that would otherwise end up in the landfill from IU dormitories, Greek houses, and off-campus student housing. Items are collected starting in late April/early May through early August. Under an agreement with the Warehouse, a local community recreation center, collected items are stored through the summer, until sale day in late August. The sale date is designed to coincide with student move-in, in an attempt to reduce the number of new items purchased by students at the start of the academic year. At 2015 sale, H2H took in $40,700 and sent the remaining 3 semi trailers worth of donations on to Goodwill to be processed and sold. Over the summer, H2H logged 646 volunteer shifts for 1,815 hours. On sale day, 3,070 shoppers came through the doors, including 700 before 9:30am. The H2H steering committee estimates that 45 tons of reusable items were intercepted from the landfill, bringing the H2H total to an estimated 217 tons since the beginning of this effort in 2010.

In the 2011-2012 academic year, a food waste audit was done in Hoosier Cafe. All waste receptacles in the facility were blocked or removed, forcing customers to dispose of waste at a centrally located sorting station, staffed by volunteers. Volunteers asked customers to sort waste into six categories: Landfill material, plastic/glass/metals, mixed paper, corrugated cardboard, food waste and other compostable material. Volunteers educated customers about recycling while they were sorting. Waste from approximately 70 customers was collected over two hours.

Pre-consumer food waste from most dining facilities goes to the Hilltop Garden and Nature Center (on campus), where it is composted and used in the garden.

Most but not all of the dining halls use a trayless dining program. This ensures students take only what they can carry, resulting in less excess food and less food waste.

Some facilities serve primarily on reusable service-ware (metal silverware, ceramic dishes), including Collins Living-Learning Center, and the Woodlands in Forrest Quadrangle.

Reusable containers can be filled with soda or tea for just 59 cents at any Residential Programs and Services dining location. There is also a discount on coffee purchases with reusable mugs.

IU Convenience stores sell refillable water bottles and reusable bags to minimize plastic waste.