Overall Rating	Silver - expired
Overall Score	56.08
Liaison	Katherine Straub
Submission Date	Aug. 21, 2020

STARS v2.2

Susquehanna University
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	2.68 / 8.00

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Figures needed to determine total waste generated (and diverted):

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Materials recycled	53.69 Tons	74 Tons
Materials composted	1 Tons	0 Tons
Materials donated or re-sold	0 Tons	0 Tons
Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion	0 Tons	0 Tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator	591.25 Tons	690 Tons
Total waste generated	645.94 Tons	764 Tons

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, 2012	June 30, 2013

A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:

Chose FY 2013 as the baseline year to be consistent with the GHG inventory baseline.

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	2,052	1,782
Number of employees resident on-site	11	16
Number of other individuals resident on-site	0	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	2,241.70	2,168
Full-time equivalent of employees	499.75	439
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	0	0
Weighted campus users	2,571.84	2,404.75

Total waste generated per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total waste generated per weighted campus user	0.25 Tons	0.32 Tons

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

20.95

Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator by recycling, composting, donating or re-selling, performance year:

8.47

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

8.47

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	No
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:

Batteries, fluorescent and other light bulbs/lamps

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

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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?:

Yes

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

Yes

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

In 2019, all trash cans were removed from classrooms and placed in convenient locations in common spaces alongside recycling cans to remove barriers to recycling. Terracycle boxes have been placed across campus and the campus community has been increasingly using these receptacles to recycle harder to recycle items.

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

In March 2018, a waste audit conducted by the Office of Sustainability (with students) of 2 first year residence halls assessed the impacts of adopting new recycling signs throughout campus. In September 2018, a waste audit conducted by the Office of Sustainability (with students) of an academic building assessed the impacts of removing trash cans from classrooms. The findings helped remove all trash cans from classrooms. In March 2019, a waste audit conducted by the Office of Sustainability (with students) of 2 first year residence halls assessed the impacts of different recycling can lids.

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:

Facilities Management owns several large storage spaces where unwanted furniture is collected and saved for reuse. This supply is then open to the campus community when trying to furnish offices and common spaces in residence buildings.

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

Information Technology holds a "yard sale" each year to sell surplus IT equipment to campus community members.

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

All students are allotted $30 per semester for printing and copying. They are charged the same rates as faculty and administrators - $0.06 B&W, $0.10 Color. If they go over their allotment, the Bursar will invoice for printing/copying charges.

By default, printing is set for duplex 2-sided and black and white. Single sided and color are available but must be selected at the time of printing.

Faculty can request additional university allotted pages for particular classes.

All student printing requests are stored for 24 hours. If the print job is not actually released and printed, the print job will be deleted from the print queue.

University wide, no printing on the Multifunction Printers takes place without a charge code, resulting in all print charges being allocated to one of the university’s department budgets.

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

Faculty meeting agendas and minutes are distributed electronically. Updated Faculty Handbooks are printed only by request. Course catalogs are printed only by request. Finance-related activities such as PCard reconciliation and approval and payments/reimbursements are processed electronically.

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

Information Technology designates areas during move-out for students to leave unwanted electronics. Facilities Management designates spots for cardboard recycling during move-in. Hawk Stuff, collects gently used items from students that they no longer want and would have thrown away and saves them all summer long to give out to students in the fall.

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

*Note - The composting program that composted 1 ton of food waste in FY 2019 (listed above) is no longer active. Instead, we've partnered with a pig farmer for FY 20 to take food waste that is coming out of our main dining room. For ease of operation, all pre-consumer food waste that we were composting on campus is now diverted to the pig farmer. About 60% of total food waste is now being diverted from the landfill. Due to COVID 19, we chose FY 19 as a more representative performance year than FY 20.

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

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Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Landfill waste includes both Facilities (campus) and Aramark (Dining Services)

FY 2019:
Facilities 374.35 tons
Aramark 216.9 tons
Total = 591.25 tons

FY 2013:
Facilities 344 tons
Aramark 337 tons Evert + 9 tons Ele's
Total = 690 tons

Weights provided by Facilities Management and SU Dining Services.

Data source(s) and notes about the submission