University of California, Santa Barbara
IN-25: Innovation B

In an effort to improve waste management practices and decrease the workload required from custodial staff to service the indoor waste infrastructure, an innovative approach was taken by the Associate Director of Facilities Management, the Custodial Superintendent, and the Refuse & Recycling Manager. They began a pilot program to walk the indoor square footage of 10 buildings with the respective custodian for that route. With the majority of the custodians at UCSB on campus in the early morning, walkthroughs occurred on Friday mornings from 4am-8am for 10 weeks. With the guidance of the custodial staff, underutilized and outdated containers were removed, and new containers with signage (stickers) informing users of acceptable items in that waste stream and the service schedule for that bin were added. In an additional effort to assist the custodial staff, the existing custodial carts were replaced with carts that provided separate receptacles for landfill and recycling waste. The custodians were also provided with blue liners for the recycling waste stream to help them differentiate between the two waste streams when disposing of waste; blue liners in the blue recycling dumpsters; and black liners in the tan dumpsters. At the end of each walkthrough, all waste receptacles in the building were mapped, and using the building floor plans, copies were provided to the custodian, the custodial lead for the area, as well as the building managers. This integrated and comprehensive approach to improving waste management and custodial service also resulted in invaluable face time with the custodial staff and allowed them provide important feedback on more than waste services. While this program touched on environmental sustainability, it also targeted social and economical sustainability issues.