Overall Rating	Silver - expired
Overall Score	59.82
Liaison	Joanne Wong
Submission Date	Feb. 10, 2021

STARS v2.2

Mills College
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	4.26 / 8.00	Joanne Wong Sustainability Coordinator Campus Facilities

"---" 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	125 Tons	21 Tons
Materials composted	73 Tons	67 Tons
Materials donated or re-sold	10.15 Tons	5 Tons
Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion	0 Tons	0 Tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator	148 Tons	362 Tons
Total waste generated	356.15 Tons	455 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	July 1, 2005	June 30, 2006

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:

Our baseline starts in FY2006. In this fiscal year, there was very limited recycling, compost had already been fully implemented in the dining halls, and there was an extended infrastructure of dumpsters across campus. During this time, a Recycling Manager was hired and the College invested staff time and resources in implementing a campus-wide recycling program. In the years that followed, compost was expanded across campus and many of the dumpsters were downgraded to smaller carts.

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	578	491
Number of employees resident on-site	19	18
Number of other individuals resident on-site	57	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	1,229	1,270
Full-time equivalent of employees	336	356.80
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	5	0
Weighted campus users	1,376.25	1,347.35

Total waste generated per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total waste generated per weighted campus user	0.26 Tons	0.34 Tons

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

23.37

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:

58.44

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

58.44

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	Yes
Furniture	Yes
Residence hall move-in/move-out waste	Yes
Scrap metal	Yes
Pallets	Yes
Tires	Yes
Other (please specify below)	Yes

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

Mills has a Reuse Depot where basically any reusable item can be donated and others can take it for free.

Optional Fields

Active Recovery and Reuse

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

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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?:

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

Contamination and Discard Rates

Average contamination rate for the institution’s recycling program:

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A brief description of any recycling quality control mechanisms employed:

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Programs and Initiatives

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

Standard signage for landfill, recycling, and composting is posted for all indoor and outdoor bins and waste areas with photos of the common items put in those bins. These signs are available for printing on the Mills Sustainability website. Mills has a video describing specifically what goes into each bin at Mills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhjCFqjeDMY . Furthermore, Mills participates annually in the Recyclemania competition, with an inter-residence competition organized to encourage performance in the national competition.

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

Staff and students have conducted waste audits in the dumpsters outside of a residence hall. These audits demonstrated a high ratio of paper towels, which pushed forward the initiative to implement a compost program throughout the residence halls. After the compost program was implemented and before the RecycleMania competition, students and staff conducted an audit of the residence hall compost bins to obtain an accurate volume to weigh conversion ratio.

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:

There are several ways that the College goes about reusing and exchanging office supplies. Divisons/departments may contact Facilities to take unwanted items, which are stored and made available to other departments upon request. The student-run Reuse Depot accepts items such as office and school supplies, which are quickly redistributed to the community. Many divisions/departments have a reuse area so employees within can exchange supplies. Lastly, the Reuse Depot is a student-run space where Mills community members can donate and/or take gently-used items for free.

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

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

GoPrint is a centralized printer management system. At Mills GoPrint is deployed in student computing labs to monitor printing and charge for usage above the free allowance assigned to each student. GoPrint is also tracking usage on networked printers outside of student labs so Mills can better analyze and track printing across campus.

GoPrint is being implemented as part of an effort to curb waste for both environmental and fiscal reasons. Many institutions that have implemented printing systems have found that making users aware of the cost of their printing results in a significant decrease in printing. Such a decrease would help support sustainability goals and reduce rising costs.

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

The College has migrated all course catalogs, course schedules, and directories to online sources and does not provide printed copies.

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

During move-out, the Reusables Drive provides the opportunity for students to donate the items they do not need, directing them toward the Reuse Depot or local non-profit organizations. This program keeps our resources in the community and extends their useful life. Developed over many years, this program is extremely successful at diverting useful material goods away from the landfill. Donated storage pods, labeled Reusables Drive, are placed in the parking lot directly next to each residence hall to be used as collection rooms. They provide students with a dry, enclosed location to donate their items. They are available to students the last weeks before move-out. The Sustainability Coordinator, Eco-Representatives and volunteers collect the donated items, sort them according to their appropriate destinations, and direct them to either the Reuse Depot or local organizations.

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

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

https://inside.mills.edu/about-mills/sustainability/waste-reduction.php

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Counts of students, staff, etc. noted in this section are the counts associated with the performance timeline measured, in this case July 1 2018 - June 30 2019. Overall demographics given in the beginning of this STARS report reflect most recent counts.

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.