Overall Rating	Gold - expired
Overall Score	71.74
Liaison	Carrie Metzgar
Submission Date	March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of California, San Diego
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	5.61 / 8.00	Michelle Perez Energy and Sustainability Manager Utilities and Sustainability

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

Parts 1 and 2. Waste per person

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

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Materials recycled	1,481 Tons	9,017 Tons
Materials composted	728 Tons	0 Tons
Materials donated or re-sold	183 Tons	0 Tons
Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion	0 Tons	0 Tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator	4,024.50 Tons	8,592 Tons
Total waste generated	6,416.50 Tons	17,609 Tons

If reporting post-recycling residual conversion, provide:

A brief description of the residual conversion facility:

EDCO is UC San Diego's waste & recycling hauler managed through Facilities Management. Waste and co-mingled recycling are picked up at the main La Jolla campus, including Housing and Dining buildings, University Centers, Sports Facilities, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Camp Elliott, and University Extension. The UC San Diego Health System manages its own waste, recycling and composting, and its tonnages are not included in our data. Municipal solid waste is sent to the City of San Diego's Miramar Landfill and co-mingled recyclables to EDCO Waste and Recycling Services. Pre-consumer food scraps and yard/green waste are sent to the City of San Diego's Miramar Greenery, currently the only facility permitted to compost food waste. This facility accepts clean food scraps diverted from the campus waste stream. The facility has a 0% contamination policy and restricts acceptable materials to food scraps and soiled paper towels from kitchen areas. Generally, the facility does not accept compostable service ware.

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, 2008	June 30, 2009

If end date of the baseline year/period is 2004 or earlier, provide:

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

The campus expanded significantly in the years prior to this baseline. This baseline reflects a reasonable basis of comparison for today.

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	15,447	11,663
Number of employees resident on-site	876	1,601
Number of other individuals resident on-site	418	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	36,296	28,950
Full-time equivalent of employees	18,257	16,049
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	0	0
Weighted campus users	45,413.50	37,065.25

Total waste generated per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total waste generated per weighted campus user	0.14 Tons	0.48 Tons

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

70.26

Part 3. Waste diverted from the landfill or incinerator

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

37.28

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

37.28

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	Yes
White goods (i.e. appliances)	Yes
Electronics	Yes
Laboratory equipment	Yes
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:

Vehicles, office furniture, food and green waste, mattresses, lab and research supplies, scrap metal, mixed recyclables.

Optional Fields

Active Recovery and Reuse

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

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Recycling Management

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?:

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

Contamination and Discard Rates

Average contamination rate for the institution’s recycling program:

A brief description of any recycling quality control mechanisms employed:

HDH and Sustainability do education to students and employees on what's recyclable, compostable and then left for landfill in order to reduce contamination rates. This includes presentations, tours and waste audits.

Programs and Initiatives

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

UC San Diego has recycling signage for labs, offices, residence halls and on-campus apartments. We are now in the process of standardizing this signage for all areas of campus outside of the Health System.

We have participated for at least the last 5 years in RecycleMania.

The UC-wide #MyLastTrash Campaign (https://zerowaste2020.universityofcalifornia.edu/) was designed to promote the goal of achieving zero waste by 2020 while aiming to change our behaviors associated with how we handle and reduce waste. This concept was chosen with these criteria in mind:

- Make zero waste personal. Hence the “My…”
- Include all the ways and reasons we think about waste and change our behaviors.
- Create a movement that will remain relevant until 2020.
- Refuse what you don’t need, reuse what you can and recycle what you can’t.

Faculty, staff and students can:

- Take the Pledge: Commit to three simple actions to reduce waste. Pledge now.
- Spread the Word: Use #MyLastTrash on social media to share an example of waste reduction on any UC campus.
- Stay Informed: Read about how our campus is reducing waste.

We have several students working with the Sustainability Programs Office to do student outreach and events, along with education faculty and staff about zero waste through the Green Office and Green Lab Certification programs.

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

HDH EcoNaut students conduct regular waste audits in student-populated areas of campus, including dining halls, residence halls and the main Library Walk. The Green Labs program did an indoor visual waste audit in 2018 of indoor and outdoor bin series of waste audits at 4 major lab buildings on campus (Hubbs Hall, Pacific Hall, Mayer Hall, and NSB) to help improve recycling options and education/outreach geared towards labs. Waste audits have also been performed on research, academic, administrative, dining, and resident hall locations.

A brief description of the institution's procurement policies designed to prevent waste:

In 2018, the UC is updated the environmentally preferable purchasing section of the UC Sustainable Practices Policy to turn it into a sustainable procurement policy. Language is below:

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
1. Environmentally preferable purchasing underlies and enables all other areas of sustainable practice in this Policy. Therefore, the University will maximize its procurement of environmentally preferable products and services.

2. The University will use its purchasing power to target environmentally preferable products and services for volume-discounted pricing to make them cost-competitive with conventional products and services.

3. For products and services without available environmentally preferable alternatives, the University will work with its existing and potential suppliers and leverage the University’s purchasing power and market presence to develop sustainable choices.

4. The University will integrate sustainability requirements into its practices for competitive bidding in materiel and services procurement, allowing for suppliers that meet these requirements to earn additional evaluation points.

5. Packaging for all products procured by the University should be designed, produced, and managed in an environmentally sustainable manner. The University shall seek products that have take-back programs, as appropriate.

6. When requested, suppliers citing environmentally preferable purchasing claims shall provide proper certification or detailed information on environmental claims, including benefits, durability, and take-back, reuse, and recyclable properties. Additionally, suppliers are responsible for providing proof of University of California-accepted third-party certification based upon the requirements of the University’s Procurement Services Department located in the Office of the President.

7. The goal of this section shall be applied within the constraints of research needs and budgetary requirements and in compliance with applicable rules, regulations and laws.

A brief description of the institution's surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:

We have an extensive Surplus Sales program that resells furniture, office products, electronics and more to campus departments and outside community members: http://blink.ucsd.edu/finance/equipment/inventorial/dispose/surplus.html

Environmental Health and Safety also runs ChemCycle, which lets researchers and PI's share unopened and unexpired chemicals with other researchers on campus, preventing the need to purchase more and ensuring proper disposal.

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

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

All campus-managed printers are set to default to double-sided printing.

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

Marketplace, iRequests, and now Oracle, through Business Financial Services allow campus users to process complex purchases for both goods and services without needing to fill out paper forms. They can access contracted prices, terms and conditions to ensure best value when looking for products and services. The system streamlines the ordering process by creating one cart that automatically sends POs to suppliers. Event management, timesheets, travel reimbursements and more are all processed online.

All course catalogues and schedules are also online, and students register online.

The UC San Diego directory is online.

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

Move-in efforts are highly structed through requirement of the RFP to contract of waste hauler(s). Current efforts include staging areas as well as deployed collection location with intensive oversight. Primarily the responsibility of the waste hauler, Custodial and EcoNauts have participated in sorting and user engagement. Contamination was mitigated and kept to >0.5%

Move-in:

Additional recycling containers are provided and sited in Housing areas with signage directing students to deposit their recycling in the appropriate containers.
http://hds.ucsd.edu/sustainability

Move-out:

"Zero waste" was the target for the move outs. Food donation bins, general donation bins including electronics collection, and extra recycling bins are situated throughout Housing areas. Meetings are held with resident groups and all Resident Advisors to encourage their students to think before they dump. Educational video was developed by the EcoNauts and distributed thru the Resident Life offices.

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

We have programs for toner cartridges, pallets and EPS coolers for vendor take back and reuse. We have an extensive Surplus Sales program that resells furniture, office products, electronics and more to campus departments and outside community members: http://blink.ucsd.edu/finance/equipment/inventorial/dispose/surplus.html

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

http://sustain.ucsd.edu/focus/zero-waste.html

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Data reported does not include La Jolla Medical Center due to different operational control, therefore Weighted Campus User also different than PRE-5.

Procurement: Anthony Singleton
Sustainability: Michelle Perez and Jennifer Bowser
Surplus Sales: Stephen Van Duine
ChemCycle: Reggie Long
Student outreach: Jennifer Bowser and Colin Moynihan

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.