| Overall Rating | Platinum |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 86.87 |
| Liaison | Carrie Metzgar |
| Submission Date | Nov. 5, 2024 |
University of California, San Diego
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
5.48 / 8.00 |
Elizabeth
Lin Waste Mgmt, Recycling & Sustainability Manager Facilities Management |
Parts 1 and 2. Waste per person
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Materials recycled | 3,156.53 Tons | 9,017 Tons |
| Materials composted | 1,879.74 Tons | 0 Tons |
| Materials donated or re-sold | 275.61 Tons | 0 Tons |
| Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion | 0 Tons | 0 Tons |
| Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator | 6,385.10 Tons | 8,592 Tons |
| Total waste generated | 11,696.98 Tons | 17,609 Tons |
If reporting post-recycling residual conversion, provide:
EDCO is UC San Diego’s waste and recycling hauler whose contract and operations are managed through Facilities Management. Municipal solid waste, comingled recycling, and organic waste for composting 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 collected and sent to a transfer station before it is sent to a landfill in Miramar, Otay, or Santee. Mixed Recycling is collected and sent to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Lemon Grove or Escondido to be sorted and baled. Organics recycling for composting is collected on campus and sent straight to the anerobic digester in Escondido. The anerobic digester (AD) can divert campus food waste, compostable AD approved serve ware, paper towels, and green waste generated through our onsite landscape team.
Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
| Start Date | End Date | |
| Performance Period | July 1, 2023 | June 30, 2024 |
| Baseline Period | July 1, 2008 | June 30, 2009 |
If end date of the baseline year/period is 2004 or earlier, provide:
UC San Diego has grown significantly in the years prior to this baseline. This baseline reflects a reasonable basis for comparison in this report.
Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Number of students resident on-site | 18,034 | 11,663 |
| Number of employees resident on-site | 31 | 1,601 |
| Number of other individuals resident on-site | 418 | 0 |
| Total full-time equivalent student enrollment | 38,361 | 28,950 |
| Full-time equivalent of employees | 29,695 | 16,049 |
| Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education | 0 | 0 |
| Weighted campus users | 55,976.25 | 37,065.25 |
Total waste generated per weighted campus user:
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Total waste generated per weighted campus user | 0.21 Tons | 0.48 Tons |
Percentage reduction in total waste generated per weighted campus user from baseline:
Part 3. Waste diverted from the landfill or incinerator
Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator (including up to 10 percent attributable to post-recycling residual conversion):
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 | 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, mattresses, and green waste that is turned into mulch.
Optional Fields
Active Recovery and Reuse
Recycling Management
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
A brief description of any recycling quality control mechanisms employed:
Outreach and education campaigns are run by various organizations on campus and their student interns. Housing and Dining has EcoNauts, Facilities Management has Zero Waste Ambassadors, and the Student Sustainability Collective is a student run organization that is involved in sustainability efforts on campus. These groups put together media posts to drive engagement on zero waste, host tabling events, and create presentations to bring awareness to the campus sustainability goals.
Waste audits to capture missed diversion are the recycling quality control mechanisms used by operations side facility management. This year Price Center hosted three individual waste audits to capture data to focus their zero-waste program based on the trends the data illustrated.
Programs and Initiatives
The uniformity of campus wide zero waste signage has been a big initiative in recent years. UC San Diego now has consistent signage for compost, recycling, and landfill for all departments on campus. This includes Housing and Dining facilities, University Centers, big belly units, labs, offices, residence halls and on-campus apartments.
UC San Diego has several Zero Waste Ambassador students working on sustainability projects on campus to do student outreach and events, along with education faculty and staff about zero waste. These ambassadors work to engage student leaders in the student run gardens and partner with other student associations to create a process to host zero waste events. They are also required to give peer-to-peer presentations on sustainable best practices.
One of the most notable changes will come with the update of UC San Diego’s Zero Waste Plan that has not been updated since 2019. With this document the UC San Diego can adopt new recommendations to bring the university closer to its sustainability goals.
A brief description of the institution's waste audits and other initiatives to assess its materials management efforts and identify areas for improvement:
Waste audits have been utilized to capture opportunities to increase diversion. In conjunction with EDCO, samples from various areas on campus are captured and sorted. One example is the data collected from an audit at Sverdrup Hall that revealed that 72% of that waste stream contained organic material (fall 2023). This finding created the opportunity to increase organic recycling in this area of campus.
A brief description of the institution's procurement policies designed to prevent waste:
UC San Diego adheres to the University of California's Sustainable Practices Policy for Sustainable Procurement Section G: https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/3100155/SustainablePractices
Per III.F.1. the University prioritizes waste reduction in the following order: Reduce, reuse, and then recycle. Accordingly, sustainable procurement will look to reduce unnecessary purchasing first, then prioritize the purchase of surplus or multiple-use products, before looking at recyclable or compostable products.
The recently updated UC policy has the following targets:
-
100% compliance with UC Required Level Green Spend criteria, within three (3) fiscal years
-
25% spend with products meeting UC Preferred Level Green criteria, per product category, within three (3) fiscal years
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25% spend with Economically and Socially Responsible (EaSR) suppliers, as a percentage of total addressable spend, within five (5) fiscal years
-
15% of total points utilized in competitive solicitation evaluations allotted to sustainability factors (exceptions allowed; beginning FY19-20).
The UC San Diego Integrated Procure-to-Pay Solutions website has information pertaining to sustainable procurement programs, initiatives, and best practices (https://ipps.ucsd.edu/about/sustainability/initiatives/index.html).
A brief description of the institution's surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:
Surplus Sales is a self-sustaining, eco-conscientious, all-inclusive solution to material and equipment removal for UC San Diego (https://blink.ucsd.edu/facilities/logistics/surplus/index.html). Through our various services, donation programs, sustainability practices, and campus partnerships Surplus Sales greatly mitigates landfill waste. The Surplus Sales program successfully diverted 726 tons from landfill in FY 2022-2023. Surplus sales re-sells furniture, tools, art, office products, electronics and more to campus departments and outside community members.
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 (https://blink.ucsd.edu/safety/research-lab/hazardous-waste/disposal-guidance/chemcycle.html#:~:text=For%20more%20information%2C%20contact%20Chemcycle,for%20violations%20of%20applicable%20laws).
A brief description of the institution's platforms to encourage peer-to-peer exchange and reuse:
Birch Aquarium has their annual Spring Swap, where staff bring in unused, unwanted items and either exchange it or send it to charity across the border. Additionally, students have an on-campus swap shop and hold pop-up clothing swaps at sustainability events.
A brief description of the institution's limits on paper and ink consumption:
UC San Diego's Integrated Procure-to-Pay Solutions has partnered with Hewlett-Packard (HP) to replace existing printers on campus that are nearing the end of their usable lifetime. HP will provide new high-efficiency printers at no charge to campus departments. In order to participate in the program, however, a one-time $50 non-refundable administration fee will be required for each printer exchanged. This is a phased program. In each phase, we will target the oldest and most energy inefficient printers on campus first.
The new HP printers will help reduce our printing carbon footprint not only through energy usage, but also through increased efficiency in toner and paper use. Overall, this program is designed to help departments save money on printing costs in the long run.
Goal: Provide campus with the tools to do their jobs productively, while reducing costs and minimizing environmental impact associated with UC San Diego's printing.
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Save Energy
-
Cut campus energy usage by up to 75% by replacing old, energy-inefficient printers with new, Energy Star certified printers
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Waste Reduction
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Reduce toner cartridge waste by switching to high-capacity toner, which print more pages per cartridge
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Old printers and accessories are recycled properly through Surplus Sales
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Save Paper
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Provide duplex-capable printers, encouraging double-sided printing
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Newer technology printers are more capable of handling high recycled-content paper
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Save Money
-
Now an option with newer printers, high capacity toners and recycled-content paper are usually more cost-effective
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Avoid costs from purchasing a new printer
Printer Refresh Program: https://blink.ucsd.edu/buy-pay/responsible/environment/printer-refresh.html
A brief description of the institution's initiatives to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:
Maximo for digital work order management and 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.
Additionally, all course catalogues and schedules are also online, and students register online. The UC San Diego directory is also online.
A brief description of the institution's program to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:
Move-in and move-out is a joint effort between Housing and Dining, Facilities Management, and EH&S to ensure the highest level of diversion happens during these events. All three departments work with EDCO to coordinate move-out and move-in logistics strategically placing trash, recycling, and donation containers. All departments collaborate to send out media blasts to students paired with visible signage across the campus to insure the highest level of waste diversion possible. 96 tons of materials were donated to the Department of Veteran Affairs from the 2023 UC San Diego move-out.
A brief description of the institution's programs or initiatives to recover and reuse other materials intended for disposal:
UC San Diego Surplus Sales has an extensive program of resource recovery when buildings go under renovation. Through this process of sending furniture and equipment to Surplus Sales’s facility UCSD diverted tons of potential waste. https://surplus.ucsd.edu/
Website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization and diversion efforts is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Weighted Campus User (WCU) pulled from PRE-5. WCU for waste minimization and diversion includes the La Jolla Medical Center and all undergraduate and graduate housing. View calculation spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kTGIyqMqQrfB80Sh6mp9sabd8dDv_iHr/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104925632587510143377&rtpof=true&sd=true
Point of contact for credit information:
Elizabeth Lin, Waste Management, Recycling, & Sustainability Manager, Facilities Management
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.