Portland State University
IN-1: Innovation 1

The Waste Audit Living Lab Experience (WALL-E) has organically arisen from faculty and student interest in waste management on Portland State’s campus. Whether this interest has stemmed from the desire to see public composting options for students expanded or to personalize an individual’s connection to the waste they generate, the outcomes have been the same. Rich data about the contents of waste containers on campus are being generated and speculations on behaviors driving consumption and disposal of goods are being analyzed. In the last six months, five separate waste audits have been conducted at PSU. The first of these audits arose from the desire of PSU’s Waste Reduction Task Force to examine the amount of compostable food scraps being generated in the university’s library. This audit was followed-up with an examination by Chris North’s Studio Collective of the Art Building’s waste. The three most recent audits have all been conducted by freshman inquiry classes. The primarily goal of the Waste Audit Living Lab Experience is three-fold. First, to provide students with a collaborative, thought-provoking experience that allows them to build connections between common resources, sustainability, and their everyday lives. Second, to build a robust data set of waste generation and disposal methods on campus and identify opportunities for process improvements in the university’s waste management program. Third, to foster partnerships and synergies across the PSU campus community and beyond regarding waste management practices with the hope of developing solution-based innovations within the school. This is one of the first program to be officially vetted and funded by PSU's Living Lab process.

Through this program, PSU has sorted 1,466 lbs of landfill-bound waste from five different buildings on campus with approximately 150 students.