Northern Arizona University
OP-23: Waste Diversion

1296.0 tons recycled
(figure based on a fall audit over one week - i.e. this number is an estimate because the University contracts with the City and therefore cannot get regularly reported weights)
+
45 tons composted material -
+
15.85 tons (32,000 lbs) donated during Spring move-out. This includes, clothes, re-usable materials, and food.
+
350 Tons Estimated Campus Surplus Materials diverted from the landfill (very conservative estimate)

In our dining halls as well as through our catering department, we are able to donate trays of untouched food to the Flagstaff Family Food Center. Additionally, FFFC picks up other perishable items intermittently as available. Campus Dining helps to fund a Meal Plan Scholarship program – which awarded 11 traditional 14 mpw meal plans to students this past year. Dining also supports Louie’s Cupboard, a food pantry on campus that serves the campus community.

For several years the Students for Sustainable Living and Urban Gardening (SSLUG) group on campus has worked with the South Dining facility (The Dub) to collect pre-consumer food waste to be composted in the SSLUG garden. This compost is then used in the community garden maintained by the same group. The group collects roughly 200 lbs of pre-consumer waste per week to be composted.

This past year a much more exciting initiative has been implemented. With funding from the University's Green Fund, State TRIF Funding, and funding from across the university an NAU Campus Composting Program has been implemented.

The NAU Campus Composting Program collects pre-consumer food material from almost every dining location on campus, including coffee shops and satellite locations. The material is collected at each location in small buckets. These buckets are then picked up by the NAU Velo Composting team, which is a student coordinated bike composting transportation method. All of the material is collected and transported to a location on campus where major composting efforts are taking place.

With the help of the Grounds department, Dining Services, Velo Composting, and many other partners we have been able to lay the foundation for a large scale composting program for the entire campus.

Currently there is little post-consumer composting occurring on campus because the NAU Compost Program’s system is not capable of breaking down more complex (generally non-compostable or commercially compostable) materials. Some event managers on campus do coordinate the pick-up and sorting of food waste and materials with the NAU Composting Program. Additionally, we have begun a pilot project in the University Union collecting the compostable beverage cups and adding those to the compost while careful to maintain the pile’s integrity.

Information on Northern Arizona University's waste minimization and diversion efforts can be found at nau.edu/recycling.