| Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 55.20 |
| Liaison | Kate Witte |
| Submission Date | Feb. 24, 2015 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Keene State College
OP-22: Waste Minimization
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.52 / 5.00 |
Heather
Greenwood Recycling Coordinator Physical Plant |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
None
Waste generated::
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Materials recycled | 216.66 Metric tons | 200.10 Metric tons |
| Materials composted | 35.16 Metric tons | 9.80 Metric tons |
| Materials reused, donated or re-sold | 7.26 Metric tons | 0 Metric tons |
| Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator | 604.14 Metric tons | 467.08 Metric tons |
None
Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”::
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Number of residential students | 2,621 | 2,369 |
| Number of residential employees | 10 | 7 |
| Number of in-patient hospital beds | 0 | 0 |
| Full-time equivalent enrollment | 4,707 | 4,504 |
| Full-time equivalent of employees | 654 | 583.30 |
| Full-time equivalent of distance education students | 0 | 0 |
None
Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
| Start Date | End Date | |
| Performance Year | July 1, 2013 | June 30, 2014 |
| Baseline Year | July 1, 2004 | June 30, 2005 |
None
A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:
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A brief description of any (non-food) waste audits employed by the institution:
Every year the Eco-Reps and student recycling staff conduct a waste audit (or Trash on the Lawn Day) as part of Earth Week. We collect about 10 - 20 trash bags from residence halls and then open them up on the Student Center lawn. Everything is sorted into different recycling categories, compost, reuse and landfill. Every year the data is the same - about 50% of what is thrown away could have been recycled, reused or composted.
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A brief description of any institutional procurement policies designed to prevent waste:
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A brief description of any surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:
The Eco-Reps and Recycling program host a Reuse Room in one of the buildings on campus. Here people can take/leave "still good" materials ranging from office supplies to kids toys. The Recycling program provides "reuse room" bins to anyone cleaning out their office/department and then transport the materials to this space.
There is a second space in the Media Arts building - the ROSE Room (reuse office supply exchange). This room focuses more on office and school supplies for campus. Materials are donated by faculty and staff members.
We have a strong Surplus Program where furniture and larger goods are available for reuse on campus (1st) or available to the general public for sale, one weekend per month (2nd).
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A brief description of the institution's efforts to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:
Campus seems focused on reducing the amount of material printed. Many offices/departments/programs make their materials available online while others only offer their materials through a digital medium. Offices who traditionally order/print large amounts of materials have been taking inventory of what is actually used and then adjusted their purchasing/printing of materials to better reflect how many are needed.
Campus uses online platforms for classes. Here the faculty can post pdfs of reading assignments, the syllabus and other key documents for the class without having to print any copies.
None
A brief description of any limits on paper and ink consumption employed by the institution:
Printing is limited in the library, and the large printing lab requires multiple steps to get something printed. Limits have not yet been implemented in other computer labs.
None
A brief description of any programs employed by the institution to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:
The recycling program places donation bins in 38 residential hall locations. Each location collects clothing, shoes, bedding, food, household goods, cleaning supplies, toiletries, school supplies and appliances/electronics. These items are collected by the recycling staff, stored in large 40' trailers, cleaned/organized and then resold to the campus community in June and to the first year students in August. The focus of the August sale is to minimize the amount of items new students purchase to bring to campus by buying gently used items at our resale.
During move-in, the recycling office employs dumpster monitors to help families sort the cardboard from the trash. This has increased our cardboard recycling rate during move-in AND has reduced our contamination! This effort is paired with increased signage in all first year res halls directing students and parents to the correct recycling/trash containers. Similar signs are posted in upperclassmen res halls.
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A brief description of any other (non-food) waste minimization strategies employed by the institution:
The college recently transitioned to multifunction printers (MFPs) in almost all academic and administrative locations. These MFPs replaced majority of the individual desktop printers across campus and had resulted in a huge amount of paper savings. People have to walk to a central location to pick up any printed documents - which deters many from printing everything!
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A brief description of any food waste audits employed by the institution:
The Eco-Reps host food waste audits about once every semester. They ask students to scrape their plates into compost bins. The total waste is weighed and divided by the number of students served at that specific meal, giving us the average amount of food waste per person per meal. The dining services staff collects similar data by weighing all of the waste coming out of the dishroom. This provides us with a more accurate number for food wasted per person per meal.
None
A brief description of any programs and/or practices to track and reduce pre-consumer food waste in the form of kitchen food waste, prep waste and spoilage:
The recycling program provides pre-consumper plate waste compost containers to the kitchen(s) in the Dining Commons and the Student Center. This waste is collected by the recycling program Monday - Friday, weighed, and deposited in our onsite compost area. Here, the Grounds department manages wind rows of the pre-plate waste. It is combined with other campus yard waste/debris and wood chips and turned into a rich, fertile hummus/mulch.
The recycling program shares the data from the pre-consumer plate waste containers they service at the food locations and it is used to measure kitchen waste by dining services. Sometimes additional communication occurs if something unusual ends up in the compost - like a toter of green bananas or three toters of vegetable pasta after the all campus dinner. This information helps the kitchen to adjust their menu to (hopefully) produce less waste.
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A brief description of programs and/or practices to track and reduce post-consumer food waste:
Implemented trayless dining, utilize compostable to-go containers, all catered events have greenware/compostable goods for food, and the kitchen staff makes note of unpopular food items and reduces the amount made or removes it from the menu.
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A brief description of the institution's provision of reusable and/or third party certified compostable to-go containers for to-go food and beverage items (in conjunction with a composting program):
(see above)
None
A brief description of the institution's provision of reusable service ware for “dine in” meals and reusable and/or third party certified compostable service ware for to-go meals (in conjunction with a composting program):
(see above)
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A brief description of any discounts offered to customers who use reusable containers (e.g. mugs) instead of disposable or compostable containers in to-go food service operations:
Bring your own mug and get a 10% discount.
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A brief description of other dining services waste minimization programs and initiatives:
Utilize “just ask” for a sample and "take less and waste less" prompting students to think critically about what and how much they are going to eat. When recycling staff weighs the waste, that’s an awareness building vehicle helping our community to focus on what we are doing when we waste food. Twice a semester we display a “waste buffet” of all the untouched food that students leave on their plates when they bring them to the dish return. We also built a pile of “waste” in the DC represented by a collection of boxes that represented the amount of waste for a particular day. Every day we added boxes so the students could see how much their community wasted in the course of a week. We also (student driven) created a representation in fresh fruit of the amount of food thrown out after one meal (students always want more fresh fruit).
We have resorted to plating smaller portions for certain meals
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The website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization initiatives is available:
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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.