Oregon State University
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion

NA

In addition to the commodities in the previous question, OSU also works to divert:
Batteries
Books (Hard cover & soft cover)
Electronic storage media (CDs, VHS, floppy disks, etc.)
Electronics
Film plastic
Ink/toner cartridges
Packing peanuts
Polystyrene (Styrofoam)
Fluorescent light bulbs and ballasts
Motor oil
Graduation gowns
Resale includes additional categories such as computers, shoes/clothing/housewares, office supplies, tools, sporting goods, vehicles and more (http://fa.oregonstate.edu/surplus)

An online course for incoming students called "Recycling in Your Res Hall" was implemented and completed by about 50% of residents.

Res. hall signage indicating top accepted and unaccepted items is installed at the bin opening and wall above at every bin, and signage is checked and updated annually.

Bottles and cans are sorted to remove redeemable containers; most contaminants are removed at this time.

"No coffee cups" signs are on some but not all on-the-go recycling units.

Our special event recycling program requires most event stations to be staffed.

For smaller cardboard containers, material is handloaded into larger receptacles; trash is removed during this process.

Waste Watchers
Campus Recycling operates a waste reduction-oriented volunteer club known as the Waste Watchers. Waste Watchers act as advocates for recycling and waste reduction by planning and hosting events and other forms of marketing to educate their peers.

Eco-Reps Recycle Right Program
Eco-Reps paid to promote sustainability in the residence halls in which they live conducted outreach aimed at reducing recycling contamination behavior via door-to-door conversations and bin checks and a sorting activity hosted at a both in dining centers.

Residence Hall Training
An online course for incoming students called "Recycling in Your Res Hall" was implemented and completed by about 50% of residents. When completion rates were calculated for each hall and compared to Eco-Rep audits, a correlation was found in the data - the higher the training completion rate, the lower the contamination found in recycle bins in that hall.

Reusable Utensils Campaign
A campaign was run in fall and winter quarters specifically targeting students living on campus to put together a set of reusable eating utensils wrapped in cloth, and use those instead of disposables when they order food on-campus. We asked them to make a pledge to do this over the next month, and also offered a text reminder service that sent them a weekly text to nudge and encourage them to build the habit. The tactics and messaging used implemented strategies from Community-Based Social Marketing. Pledges were collected via web, email newsletters, emails to professors to share with classes, visits to virtual club meetings, slides in res halls, posters in res halls and dining centers, social media posts, dining center tabling, and a utensil kit giveaway.

Repair Fairs
Each term, the Waste Watchers hold Repair Fairs to foster a culture of repair and reuse over consumerism. The event allows students, staff, faculty, and members of the public to bring damaged items to receive free repairs. Repairs are given by volunteers - who teach attendees how to make future repairs, as well as fix the item - and cover a variety of categories: clothing, appliances, electronics, housewares, computers, and sometimes more. In the performance year, Repairs Fairs went virtual with video tutorials and an online event.

Master Recycler Class
Campus Recycling partners with Republic Services to coordinate a Master Recycler program for Linn and Benton counties in Oregon. This 10-week course educates community members about all aspects of waste reduction and is offered for free to anyone willing to volunteer for 30 hours after completion of the course. The Master Recyclers volunteer at OSU and in the community to educate others about waste reduction.

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

There was no campus wide audit conducted in this performance year. A new biannual audit of the weight of trash collected was implemented by OSU’s waste hauler, Republic Services. This data provides a more accurate assessment of OSU’s overall waste generation.

Also in this performance year, residence hall Eco-Representatives (paid student employees who promote sustainable behavior in their halls), conducted spot audits on the recycle bins in their hall near the beginning of the year and utilized this info to conduct outreach aimed at reducing contamination.

In this performance year, audits were conducted of centralized office recycling and trash stations.

Section 307 of OSU's Procurement and Contract Services Manual addresses sustainable purchasing. Sections 307-001 and 307-002 relate to waste:

307-001: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover
OSU will use sustainable purchasing by applying the methodology of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recover.” Whenever practicable, attention should be given to the environment through the evaluation of this methodology along with performance, life expectancy, quality, and value for money.

307-002: Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policies
When purchasing goods and services, Oregon State University will strive to balance short and long-term costs, maintenance, life cycle, and costs to the environment. Oregon State University is committed to identifying goods and services that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing goods and services that serve the same purpose. This comparison may consider raw materials acquisition, production, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, reuse, operation, maintenance, and disposal of the product. Oregon State University is also committed to identifying companies that utilize environmentally preferable products and services. Companies that are able to supply environmentally preferable products and services (especially post-consumer recycled materials) that meet performance requirements will be encouraged to offer them in bids and proposals.

Source: https://fa.oregonstate.edu/pacs-manual/300-purchasing/307-sustainability

All property no longer needed by an OSU department is REQUIRED by OSU policy to be sent to Surplus Property for proper disposition. Source: https://fa.oregonstate.edu/fiscal-policy-program/03-110-207-surplus-property-sales

There are also a policy and procedures in the Property Management Policy & Procedure Manual that provides guidance on how OSU can acquire used equipment from OSU Surplus Property and other government surplus programs: https://fa.oregonstate.edu/pro-manual/200-equipment-acquisition/211-surplus

Surplus Property manages OSU's surplus. Their mission is to recycle or transfer excess or surplus property back to OSU departments, state and local governments, and qualified nonprofit organizations within the State of Oregon. Surplus property not sold to departments are offered for sale to the general public. Most items are offered through OSUsed Store sales and online auction sites. Some items may be offered through sealed bids or contract bids. The OSUsed Store hosts sales open to the public twice per week.

All office supplies and housewares that are $5 or less are offered to OSU departments free of charge, allowing OSU to offer office supplies for reuse within the university, without the need to facilitate a separate office supplies exchange program. Binders are offered free for all.

A School Supplies Giveaway program was offered in which office supplies and other items received through the Surplus Property program that were relevant to students were set aside and stored. Then these materials were set out for free pick-up by students at a food pantry day at the campus Human Services Resource Center (the basic needs center for campus).

As noted in another section, at the Surplus Property store, all office supplies and housewares that are $5 or less are offered to OSU departments free of charge, allowing OSU to offer office supplies for reuse within the university without the need to facilitate a separate office supplies exchange program. Surplus also has a process to transfer property directly between departments at the university.

The Human Resources Services Center provides a textbook lending library with hundreds of books available as well as 120 graphing calculators. As mentioned in the previous question, Surplus Property sets aside relevant school supplies and distributes them at this center at a special event.

A program called Grads Give Back collects gowns right after the Commencement ceremony as well as at the Memorial Union throughout the year. In the spring, gowns are redistributed for free to students, with communications about the giveaway targeting students who would not otherwise be able to afford participating in Commencement. In the performance year, gowns were collected but not distributed, as the university did not host a Commencement ceremony during COVID-19.

Oregon State University does not offer free printing to students. OSU has implemented a print tracking system called BeaverPrint throughout campus. This system provides secure print release of print jobs and tracks usage of each printer. Students can release their print job at any printer simply by swiping their OSUID card at a print release station. The process allows students to review their queued print jobs, delete incorrect print jobs and release any of the print jobs in their queue.

Double-sided printing is not required, but is incentivized through reduced costs, as is black-and-white printing.

Pricing:
Black & White Single-Sided $0.07/sheet
Black & White Double-Sided $0.09/sheet
Color Single-Sided $0.25/sheet
Color Double-Sided $0.40/sheet

Source: https://is.oregonstate.edu/service/beaverprint

A small number of registration information handbooks are available to students who visit the Office of the Registrar, but course catalogs and schedules are only offered online (and not in print) at catalog.oregonstate.edu. Most courses offer materials on Canvas online rather than in print.

In 2007 a campus wide initiative to reduce move-in and move-out waste was started. Campus Recycling, Surplus Property, and University Housing and Dining Services (UHDS) join together in a coordinated effort to reduce move-in and move-out waste.

Residents receive 1-2 small recycle bins in their rooms upon move-in. Campus Recycling adds expanded polystyrene (a.k.a. Styrofoam) collection on move-in day and increases the service rate of cardboard. Furthermore, UHDS encourages students and parents to unwrap and unbox their belongings and leave the packaging at home rather than bringing on move-in day.

The annual Res. Hall Move-Out Donation Drive normally runs May through June. Marketing begins approximately one month in advance of move-out week. Residents receive announcements about how the move-out process works. Labeled donation bins are located in every res. hall lobby, along with the recycling unit starting a couple weeks before the end of the term. Resident population was low due to COVID-19 in the performance year, but approximately 6,000 pounds of donations were collected. While a portion of the donations go to the OSUsed Store to recoup costs from the donation drive, the majority goes to local nonprofits.

In the performance year, a new Move Out Donation Drive for students living off-campus was hosted by local Master Recycler volunteers and OSU Materials Management. For three days, students could bring all their reusable goods and non-perishable food through a drive-through donation event. The inaugural event collected around 2,700 pounds plus 150 pieces of furniture (unweighted).

Repair Fairs
Each term, the Waste Watchers hold Repair Fairs to foster a culture of repair and reuse over consumerism. The event allows students, staff, faculty, and members of the public to bring damaged items to receive free repairs. Repairs are given by volunteers - who teach attendees how to make future repairs, as well as fix the item - and cover a variety of categories: clothing, appliances, electronics, housewares, computers, and sometimes more.

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

Grads Give Back
A program called Grads Give Back collects gowns right after the Commencement ceremony as well as at the Memorial Union throughout the year. In the spring, gowns are redistributed for free to students, with communications about the giveaway targeting students who would not otherwise be able to afford participating in Commencement. In the performance year, gowns were collected but not distributed, as the university did not host a Commencement ceremony during COVID-19.

Landscape Debris
All woody debris such as tree trimmings is piled and periodically ground-up to be reapplied to campus grounds, instead of purchased bark chips.