University of Connecticut
OP-23: Waste Diversion

• WilliWaste Single Stream Recycling: 1,051.73 tons • WilliWaste Clean Fill: 153.68 tons • Volleyball Court Clean Fill: 70 tons • Compost Facility: 800 tons • eCorect Food Waste: 43.65 tons • Surplus Reuse: 150.80 tons • Give & Go Donations: 4.34 tons • Leaves and Trimmings Recycled: 200 tons • Furniture/Mattress Recycling: 187.78 tons • Electronic Waste In addition to the quantified efforts above, coffee grounds are given away to students and staff from our campus cafes to use in gardening. Also, UConn’s student organization, EcoHusky, promotes recycling at UConn by tabling around campus with posters that explain the mixed recycling program. Tabling also includes various recycling learning games, like a matching game for recyclables, and a “basketball” where participants must throw recyclable items into the designated recycling bin, and non-recyclables into the waste bin. Additionally, the OEP organizes 3 Green Game Days per year. During these games, volunteers from EcoHusky and EcoHouse, an environmental learning community, attend football and basketball games to educate fans on the importance of recycling, and collect bottles to bring to large recycling bins post-game.

In partnership with UConn Dining Services and UConn Community Outreach, Food Recovery collects and delivers surplus food to the Covenant Soup Kitchen in Willimantic, CT. Every weekday morning student volunteers arrive at the Library’s Bookworms Café to collect any prepackaged foods like salads and sandwiches that were not sold during the previous day. Bookworms receives all the unsold food products from all UConn Cafes as it is the last one to close. The volunteers then drive the food to the Covenant Soup Kitchen. Students also collect food from Putnam and Towers dining halls. This is food that has not been put out to serve yet and is not made up of salad bar items. Food is transported in cambro containers or produce bags depending on the type of food being donated. Volunteers usually pick food up once or twice a week from Uconn Dining Halls. Food safety is the number one priority as Food Recovery is careful to keep track of the temperatures of the food en route from UConn to Willimantic.

Dining Services uses Somat’s eCorects in five of our dining halls. We add to this dehydrator food waste from our preparation areas. This may be a mix of vegetable as well as meat products. Currently the end product is being saved for use in garden composting. We currently are processing approximately 8,712 gallons of pre-consumer waste.

Dining Services uses Somat’s eCorrects in five of our dining halls. The eCorrects process post-consumer waste that is derived from our dish rooms. These are currently processing approximately 34,848 gallons.

Give & Go is a program meant to divert waste during the move out week for undergraduates living in dorms. Each dorm complex has a manned collection point throughout the move out week. The diverted items are then donated to local charities. Close to 35 tons of donated goods were collected from 2009 to 2015. About 8,687 pounds (4.34) of donated goods were collected in 2015 alone. • Towels: 45 pounds • Laundry: 20 pounds • Office supplies: 312 pounds • Appliances: 1,836 pounds • Chair:179 pounds • Household: 388 pounds • Shelving/storage: 773 pounds • Other: 22 pounds • Toiletries: 49 pounds • Cleaning: 45 pounds • Table: 107 pounds • Laundry: 5 pounds • Bedding: 634 pounds • Bike: 26 pounds • Clothes/other: 16 pounds • Clothes: 1,275 pounds • Books: 166 pounds • Rugs: 1,727 pounds • Futon: 364 pounds • Food: 417 pounds • Miscellaneous: 235 pounds • Lamps: 46 pounds