University of Alberta
IN-3: Innovation 3

WASTE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING PROJECT
The University of Alberta Waste Experiential Learning Project is a project of the university’s Department of Facilities and Operations, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence.

BACKGROUND and OBJECTIVE
Early in 2010, Facilities and Operations staff from Buildings and Grounds Services and Energy Management and Sustainable Operations met with Daryl McCartney, UAlberta Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor and Executive Manager of the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence, and UAlberta sessional lecturer Shouhai Yu to explore the possibility of providing Civil and Environmental Engineering students with a unique opportunity to practically apply the skills learned in the classroom to real world problems. Facilities and Operations has long been interested in identifying opportunities for campus facilities, operations and services to act as ‘living laboratories’ for students pursuing experiential learning projects. Given the scale and increasing complexity of our institutional waste stream and the local expertise housed in the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence (and here at UAlberta), teaming up with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was a natural fit.

Early meetings identified two key objectives for the project:
1) enhanced student learning through the hands-on/practical implementation of theoretical concepts; and
2) creation of information and knowledge that Facilities and Operations staff could use to enhance the operational efficiency related to campus waste management.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION and RESULTS
Following initial planning and discussion, it was determined that the roll-out of an office-based post-consumer organics collection pilot program in a new building on campus, the Edmonton Clinic Health Academy (ECHA), would provide an ideal opportunity for the students and Facilities and Operations staff to work together. Not only did the project represent the first time post-consumer organic waste collection has ever been implemented in an office environment at the University of Alberta, but the scope of the project was also very large – over 1200 staff would be served by the new collection service. To prepare for the roll-out of the program in the new building (December 2011), Facilities and Operations needed to learn more about office-based waste streams on campus. Unfortunately, as future ECHA occupants were scattered in several locations across campus, surveying their current waste streams was not feasible. Instead, a building similar in composition and utilization (primarily office, small classroom and dry lab space) – the university’s Education Building – was selected to serve as a proxy.

Starting in September 2011, undergraduate and graduate students taking the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Municipal Solid Waste course (EnvE 432/CivE628) conducted two waste audits, characterizing both the landfill-bound and recyclables waste streams in the Education Building. The class then was charged with analyzing the data and making recommendations, both on how to optimize a potential organics waste collection program for that building and to improve the overall UAlberta waste management system. The recommendations were summarized into a handout and PowerPoint presentation, which the students presented to representatives from Facilities and Operations in December 2011. The presentation session allowed for interaction and dialogue between the students and Facilities and Operations personnel. Overall, Facilities and Operations staff were very impressed with the quality of the students’ analysis and recommendations, and considered implementing several recommendations as part of the ECHA organics collection program roll out. For their efforts, students received a grade based on assessment of their project by both their instructors and the Facilities and Operations personnel in attendance, which constitutes ten percent of their final mark in the course.

FUTURE PLANS and PROJECTS
On account of the success of the Waste Experiential Learning Project, Facilities and Operations staff have begun working with faculty from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and staff from the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence to develop an annual waste characterization methodology specifically tailored to the post-secondary sector. In particular, methodology will consider the varying volumes of waste at different periods both within and between academic years, the different waste production contexts (i.e. residential, office-institutional, lab, etc.) and other post-secondary specific factors. This new methodology will also institutionalize the relationship between students enrolled in the Municipal Solid Waste course, who will be asked to participate in the annual auditing process, and the UAlberta Facilities and Operatons personnel who work in waste management.

The University of Alberta is committed to continuing to facilitate the applied learning of the undergraduate and graduate students who assist with the audit and methodology development, while at the same time advancing the integration of sustainability across operations, teaching and research, and outreach.