Wake Forest University
OP-23: Waste Diversion

Wake Forest University has created partnerships between the Office of Waste Reduction and Surplus Property (OWRSP) and various departments throughout campus. We work with a contact supervisor from each of these departments to promote waste diversion, recycling, re-use, etc. and keep accurate records of all waste diverted from the landfill. The main categories are listed below. Note that we do not count the Construction and Demolition, Computer Equipment, E-cycling or Hazardous and Non-Hazardous waste in the STARS Waste Diversion or Waste Reduction report sections. One key addition to the OWRSP was our Surplus Property program. The Surplus Program started in July of 2011, and since that time it has diverted over 248,600 lbs. of waste from the landfill, repurposed over 3,000 items and furniture for on campus use, captured close to 30,000 lbs. of residential electronic waste through a free pickup program, and helped the University avoid costs of buying new items by over $1 million dollars. The Surplus Program’s mission includes goals to minimize landfill waste, find creative ways to re-purpose items on campus, and support local organizations and non-profits with items that cannot be re-purposed on campus. The surplus program allows various departments the opportunity to reuse items from other departments, reducing the university's overall need to purchase new furniture and office amenities. The program has also helped us streamline our e-waste (technotrash) collections, and allowed us to help departments find outlets to recycle or repurpose various items. For more information on surplus, please visit our website: http://facilities.wfu.edu/clean/surplus/ Material categories diverted from the landfill: MIXED PAPER • commingled • contract shredded CARDBOARD DRINK CONTAINERS YARD WASTE • leaves/grass • firewood • chips • Reynolda Gardens METAL • scrap • white goods (appliances) WOOD • lumber • pallets CONSTRUCTION & DEMOLITION • concrete • stone • asphalt • brick/block MISC • computer equipment • batteries • bulbs/ballasts • auto batteries • tires • oil/filters • food rescue • e-cycling • toner cartridges • spring move-out • surplus furniture • hazardous waste • non-hazardous waste

The Campus Kitchen at Wake Forest is a food "recycling" program that takes prepared but never served food from the campus dining hall and assembles healthy and nutritious meals for members of our community living in food poverty. Our Campus Kitchen has quite a history. It grew out of a student-run program called Homerun started by two Wake Forest Juniors in 1999. Karen Borchert and Jessica Jackson went on to start the national program called “The Campus Kitchens Project.” Through a partnership with ARAMARK, we are able to repurpose an average of 600 pounds of food every month - food that is prepared but never served on campus and that would otherwise go to waste. Our food is distributed by local social service agencies in Winston-Salem. These agencies use our food as a resource so that they can allocate existing but limited resources to increase their services to the communities they serve.

As of February 2012, all pre-consumer food waste from the Fresh Food Company is being picked up and taken to Gallins Family Farm for composting. In January of 2014, we opened a second Dining Facility and we collect pre-consumer and post-consumer waste at this facility. In addition, we compost coffee grounds from the on-campus Starbucks. The university also donates food that is not served to community agencies.

The university composts pre-consumer waste at all of our dining halls. We opened a new dining hall in January of 2014 and we began composting post-consumer food waste with the addition of a food macerator system that grinds food waste to be collected for compost by Gallins Family Farm.