Overall Rating Bronze - expired
Overall Score 32.05
Liaison Gary Cocke
Submission Date June 13, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

The University of Texas at Dallas
OP-22: Waste Minimization

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 5.00
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Waste generated::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Materials recycled 264.80 Tons 283.90 Tons
Materials composted 35.06 Tons 38.20 Tons
Materials reused, donated or re-sold 35.06 Tons 38.20 Tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator 829.20 Tons 779.10 Tons

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Number of residential students 4,738 3,630
Number of residential employees 0 12
Number of in-patient hospital beds 0 0
Full-time equivalent enrollment 18,618 15,758
Full-time equivalent of employees 3,546 3,363
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 Sept. 1, 2013 Aug. 31, 2014
Baseline Year Sept. 1, 2011 Aug. 31, 2012

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

For this baseline and performance year, the data was readily available.


A brief description of any (non-food) waste audits employed by the institution:

The Sustainability Coordinator performs campus waste and recycling audits in the form of building and campus walkthroughs to ensure that locations of and the conditions of the waste and recycling containers are satisfactory. UTD’s recycling team performs daily recycling pickups and audits the condition and location of indoor and outdoor recycling and waste bins.


A brief description of any institutional procurement policies designed to prevent waste:
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A brief description of any surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:
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A brief description of the institution's efforts to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:

UT Dallas has all institutional policies available online. Each policy is available in PDF format to discourage printing.


A brief description of any limits on paper and ink consumption employed by the institution:
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A brief description of any programs employed by the institution to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:

Every Fall semester, a cardboard recycling initiative takes place at the beginning of the semester during move-in to reduce the cardboard sent to the landfill. During the last move-in cardboard recycling initiative, over 10 truckloads of cardboard were diverted from the landfill.


A brief description of any other (non-food) waste minimization strategies employed by the institution:

Waste minimization is encouraged through materials readily available in online formats. For example, shared drives are used among university staff to reduce the need for individual printing.


A brief description of any food waste audits employed by the institution:
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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:

Through our compost operations, the daily pre-consumer food waste pickups are tracked. Every month, there is an updated report.


A brief description of programs and/or practices to track and reduce post-consumer food waste:

There is no current post-consumer food waste collection program. The student led organization called the “Sustainability Club” previously held a post-consumer food waste collection event supported by the Office of Sustainability.


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):
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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):
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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:
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A brief description of other dining services waste minimization programs and initiatives:
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The website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization initiatives is available:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

This credit uses data collected in FY 14 (Performance) and FY 12 (Baseline), which is different from the IC 3 timeframe.


This credit uses data collected in FY 14 (Performance) and FY 12 (Baseline), which is different from the IC 3 timeframe.

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.