| Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 48.88 |
| Liaison | Amy McElhinney |
| Submission Date | Oct. 2, 2014 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
University of Mount Union
OP-22: Waste Minimization
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.97 / 5.00 |
Leah
Graham Sustainability and Campus Outreach Manager Office of Sustainability |
Waste generated::
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Materials recycled | 139.49 Tons | 25 Tons |
| Materials composted | 1 Tons | 1 Tons |
| Materials reused, donated or re-sold | 10 Tons | 0 Tons |
| Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator | 272.18 Tons | 510 Tons |
Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”::
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Number of residential students | 1,558 | 1,337 |
| Number of residential employees | 8 | 6 |
| Number of in-patient hospital beds | 0 | 0 |
| Full-time equivalent enrollment | 2,170 | 2,082 |
| Full-time equivalent of employees | 435 | 406 |
| Full-time equivalent of distance education students | 0 | 0 |
Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
| Start Date | End Date | |
| Performance Year | July 1, 2012 | June 30, 2013 |
| Baseline Year | July 1, 2006 | June 30, 2007 |
A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:
Started Stars & GGER in 2006
A brief description of any (non-food) waste audits employed by the institution:
We have not conducted any non-food waste audits.
A brief description of any institutional procurement policies designed to prevent waste:
We do not have any procurement policies designed to prevent waste.
A brief description of any surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:
Yes, we currently do an exchange program within the department for office supplies.
A brief description of the institution's efforts to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:
Yes, we currently promote not to unless you need to.
A brief description of any limits on paper and ink consumption employed by the institution:
Students are charged for printing.
Desktop printers are no longer supported.
A brief description of any programs employed by the institution to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:
MOVE OUT: Trash to Treasure Sale
2014 marks the 6th year Mount Union has conducted "Trash to Treasure", a move-out donation and sale that benefits the United Way of Greater Stark County. On average every year, about $1,000 is donated from items students donate to the sale during move out time.
A brief description of any other (non-food) waste minimization strategies employed by the institution:
Mount Union is a participant in RecycleMania, an international waste minimization and recycling competition and Game Day Challenge Football, a national waste and recycling competition. 2014 marks the 7th consecutive year Mount Union has been a participant in RecycleMania and has participated in Game Day Challenge for at least 2 years.
"RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over an 8-week period each spring, colleges across the United States and Canada report the amount of recycling and trash collected each week and are in turn ranked in various categories based on who recycles the most on a per capita basis, as well as which schools have the best recycling rate as a percentage of total waste and which schools generate the least amount of combined trash and recycling. With each week’s updated ranking, participating schools follow their performance against other colleges and use the results to rally their campus to reduce and recycle more."-recyclemaniacs.org
"The GameDay Recycling Challenge is a friendly competition for colleges and universities to promote waste reduction at their football games. During the challenge, colleges and universities implement waste reduction programs during home football games. Schools track and report waste reductions and disposal data that is used to rank the schools.The competition is run by a partnership of the College and University Recycling Coalition (CURC), RecycleMania, Keep America Beautiful (KAB) and EPA’s WasteWise program."-gamedaychallenge.org
A brief description of any food waste audits employed by the institution:
In 2013-14 Mount Union conducted food waste audits of post-consumer food waste on Oct. 23, 2013, and a trayless post-consumer food waste audit in April 11, 2014.
University of Mount Union conducted a Food Waste Analysis. The EV 350Q Spring 2012 class conducted: A Case Study on Food Waste and Composting Options at the University of Mount Union. Part of the study included a week long waste audit of post-consumer food waste in our campus dining hall.
A brief description of any programs and/or practices to track and reduce pre-consumer food waste in the form of kitchen food waste, prep waste and spoilage:
AVI is our current food service provider. We do not have any programs or practices to track or reduce pre-consumer food waste in the kitchen, prep and spoilage.
A brief description of programs and/or practices to track and reduce post-consumer food waste:
We currently do not have a formal program or practice in place to track and reduce post-consumer food waste.
We conduct food waste audits of post-consumer food waste and do various outreach events tabling in front of the cafeteria. This year we have plans to share the results of trayless vs. non trayless post-consumer food waste results from past audits.
We informally decide on days to track food waste through a yearly audit below.
In 2013-14 Mount Union conducted food waste audits of post-consumer food waste on Oct. 23, 2013, and a trayless post-consumer food waste audit in April 11, 2014.
University of Mount Union conducted a Food Waste Analysis. The EV 350Q Spring 2012 class conducted: A Case Study on Food Waste and Composting Options at the University of Mount Union. Part of the study included a week long waste audit of post-consumer food waste in our campus dining hall.
A brief description of the institution's provision of reusable and/or third party certified compostable to-go containers for to-go food and beverage items (in conjunction with a composting program):
The campus dining offers reusable to-go containers made available to students at $5 for the year. When they return their to-go container they receive their $5 back.
We do not offer composting on our campus. Other dining services use to-go containers that are not compostable.
A brief description of the institution's provision of reusable service ware for “dine in” meals and reusable and/or third party certified compostable service ware for to-go meals (in conjunction with a composting program):
The campus dining offers reusable to-go containers made available to students at $5 for the year. When they return their to-go container they receive their $5 back.
A brief description of any discounts offered to customers who use reusable containers (e.g. mugs) instead of disposable or compostable containers in to-go food service operations:
There are no discounts for customers who bring their own reusable containers at this time.
A brief description of other dining services waste minimization programs and initiatives:
The website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization initiatives is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Leah entered in information about RecycleMania, Trash to Treasure, and Food Waste audits, performance year audit.
RECYCLING AND TRASH PERFORMANCE YEAR CALCULATION
The performance year audit for trash and recycling was calculated tallying the number of hauls from our trash and recycling vendor for the entire year. Using RecycleMania's Volume to Weight Conversion chart the capacity for RECYCLING and the capacity for TRASH was calculated for the entire campus (single stream, corrugated cardboard, compacted trash, and loose campus trash). 80% of the total capacity number was used to report the TOTAL TONS of recycling and trash for the performance year July 2012 through June 2013.
Leah entered in information about RecycleMania, Trash to Treasure, and Food Waste audits, performance year audit.
RECYCLING AND TRASH PERFORMANCE YEAR CALCULATION
The performance year audit for trash and recycling was calculated tallying the number of hauls from our trash and recycling vendor for the entire year. Using RecycleMania's Volume to Weight Conversion chart the capacity for RECYCLING and the capacity for TRASH was calculated for the entire campus (single stream, corrugated cardboard, compacted trash, and loose campus trash). 80% of the total capacity number was used to report the TOTAL TONS of recycling and trash for the performance year July 2012 through June 2013.
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.