Oregon State University
OP-23: Waste Diversion

SURPLUS PROGRAM
Weights for material reused, donated, or re-sold (i.e. processed through OSU Surplus Property) are not taken upon transfer, but we made a conservative estimate of the material processed and included it in the figure above. This means that the amount of total waste diverted is higher than represented above.

Our surplus program is well-established in our state, and we sell used items to departments, agencies, non-profits and the general public (at our once weekly public sales). This accounts for a substantial amount of materials diverted from the landfill - in FY15 the sales volume of surplus items was approximately $1 million. Surplus also disassembles and recycles products that cannot be resold, landfilling only the items that are neither resellable nor recyclable.

RECYCLING PROGRAM
As stated on our website, "Campus Recycling is responsible for managing a comprehensive waste management system that focuses on reducing, reusing and recycling with disposal as a last resort." In addition to collecting recyclables from all campus buildings, Campus Recycling offers many additional recycling and waste reduction programs:

1) With Surplus Property, we co-sponsor an annual donation drive in the residence halls during move-out week. In June 2015 we collected 33,950 pounds of material for donation and resale (http://fa.oregonstate.edu/recycling/events-and-opportunities/res-hall-move-out-donation-drive).

2) Campus Recycling provides event recycling for campus events (free to most departments), and serves as a resource to event organizers who seek to plan sustainable events.

3) OSU has fairly extensive food composting programs as described below.

4) In addition to composting food and dining waste, OSU also collects the following for composting: landscape debris, scrap wood, and animal bedding.

5) Outreach efforts by Campus Recycling are extensive:

Campus Recycling employs one full-time staff and two part-time student staff to work on outreach and the development of new programs. Outreach for recycling and composting occurs via educational events (RecycleMania, Earth Week, etc.), tabling at events, public presentations and workshops, collaborative partnerships, social media, etc.

We are the primary organizer of the annual Earth Week celebration, which brings together 40+ on- and off-campus environmental organizations to offer a week full of educational and engaging events, including a community fair and many others.

We started the All-in-the-Hall program in order to increase recycling by providing an equal opportunity to recycle and landfill waste in classroom buildings. Halls included in the program have trash bins removed from classrooms, which are replaced by multi-bin units that also offer recycling located in the hallway. Campus Recycling requires that all new and renovated buildings be included in this program.

Campus Recycling and the Student Sustainability Initiative coordinate a student volunteer team called the Waste Watchers, which works on events and marketing, and provides leadership opportunities for students.

During the FY15 performance year, the Waste Watchers headed up the Coffee Cup Coup Campaign, an initiative whose primary goal was to reduce the amount of disposable coffee cups being used, while promoting reusable alternatives. The campaign focused on socially normalizing reusable mugs by equipping and rewarding individuals who used them.

Campus Recycling partners with Republic Services to coordinate a Master Recycler program for Linn and Benton counties in Oregon. This 8-week course educates community members about all aspects of waste reduction and is offered for free to anyone who volunteers for 30 hours after completion of the course. These Master Recyclers volunteer at OSU and in the community to educate others about waste reduction.

OSU Housing and Dining Services provides all leftover products to Linn-Benton Food Share. In addition, OSU provides a Food Pantry for students in need. Any tips left in OSU coffee shops are donated to the food pantry.

Republic Services of Corvallis had the first facility in Oregon's to be permitted to accept all food waste including meat, bread and vegetable products. This facility is called the Pacific Region Compost Facility (PRC) and it handles the large majority of compost for the OSU campus. The facility is about 10 miles from OSU, reducing transportation costs and fuel use. A few smaller, on-site composting sites also exist on the OSU campus. Here are the programs to collect pre-consumer organic waste:

1) Pre-consumer food waste is composted at the three dining centers of OSU Housing and Dining Services and one Memorial Union restaurant (Pangea). The 3 dining centers and Memorial Union (from Joe's Burgers and Panda Express) recycle used cooking oil and grease. All campus coffee shops collect used grounds. This pre-consumption waste is sent to the PRC.

2) OSU offers a Department Compost program for kitchens and break rooms. The material collected is a mix of pre- and post-consumer organic material and it is sent to the PRC for processing. Some of the departments are set-up with worm compost bins to manage their own waste, if requested.

3) In FY15 OSU ran a res. hall compost program, offering compost to residents in 3 res. halls. The material collected is a mix of pre- and post-consumer organic material and it is sent to the PRC for processing.

4) The Student Sustainability Initiative provides a 3-bin composting system at the Student Sustainability Center, where Center staff compost. Also, people can donate kitchen waste from residence halls or off-campus living to be composted and used on-site in the permaculture garden.

5) A compost system located near Wiegand Hall collects food scraps and coffee grounds and is utilized as a teaching tool for soils classes.

Note: Most dining facilities not only sort and collect curbside recycling and compostable material, but also recycle used cooking oil, cooking grease, and film plastic.

OSU's post-consumer food composting is similar to our pre-consumer programs listed above.

1) Post-consumer food waste is composted at all three of the dining centers of OSU Housing and Dining Services (2 of these 3 centers have trained staff sorting in the kitchen, resulting in a very high recovery rate). This waste is sent to the Pacific Region Compost facility (PRC).

2) Post-consumer food waste is now being composted at one of the Memorial Union restaurants - the North Porch Cafe.

3) OSU offers a Department Compost program for kitchens and break rooms. The material collected is a mix of pre- and post-consumer organic material and it is sent to the PRC for processing. Some of the departments are set-up with worm compost bins to manage their own waste, if requested.

4) In FY15 OSU ran a res. hall compost program, offering compost to residents in 3 res. halls. The material collected is a mix of pre- and post-consumer organic material and it is sent to the PRC for processing.

5) A compost system located near Wiegand Hall collects food scraps and coffee grounds and is utilized as a teaching tool for soils classes. It may also process post-consumer food waste.

In addition to the commodities in the previous question, OSU also works to divert:
Styrofoam
Film plastics
Electronic storage media (CDs, VHS, floppy disks, etc.)
Electronics
Batteries (alkaline, lead, lithium, NiCd, NiNH, Mercury)
Fluorescent light bulbs and ballasts
Servingware composting
Resale includes additional categories such as computers, shoes/clothing/housewares, office supplies, tools, sporting goods, vehicles and more (http://fa.oregonstate.edu/surplus)

The weight of surplus items is not taken upon their transfer. To estimate this weight, we queried our sales database to pull a list of items sold in the performance year, determined the quantity of the most common items sold (e.g. desks, computers, etc.), and multiplied that by an average weight of said items. There were many categories of items we did not account for, so the resulting number is less than what we expect is the actual total of material reused by being processed through OSU Surplus Property.

Data is from Campus Recycling (http://fa.oregonstate.edu/recycling) and Surplus Property (http://fa.oregonstate.edu/surplus).