SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS: 
HIGHER ED. EDITION

October 

2013  

  

 

     Excellence is never an accident. 

 

 

  
  Vanderbilt University Recycling Numbers on the Rise
 
The numbers are in. The amount of materials recycled at Vanderbilt rose from 3 million pounds to 5 million pounds last year-that's a 60 percent increase.

 

From 2011 to 2012, Vanderbilt recycled enough cardboard, plastic, scrap metal, aluminum and glass to make a major impact on the campus and surrounding Nashville communities, conserving the equivalent of the following important natural resources:

  • 45,000 mature trees (almost eight times the number of trees and shrubbery on the Vanderbilt campus);
  • 16 million gallons of water (enough water to  meet the average water requirement of Vanderbilt's students, faculty and staff for five days);
  • 8,500 cubic yards of landfill space (more than three times the volume of the Vanderbilt Student Recreation Center pool); and
  • 530 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E) greenhouse gases avoided (the pollution from approximately 1,000 car rides to and from Tampa, Fla).

Several improvements implemented this past year helped Vanderbilt achieve this level of recycling included. They are:

  • Expansion of recycling to plastics #3-7 instead of just #1-2, which includes such items as hard plastic labware, food storage containers and clamshell food containers;
  • Expansion of solid waste recycling at VUMC into Vanderbilt Medical Group areas in the Vanderbilt Clinic and Medical Center East;
  • Expansion of scrap metal recycling on main campus;
  • Expansion of cardboard recycling infrastructure on main campus and the installation of new cardboard dumpsters at Branscomb, Carmichael Towers and the Chestnut facility as well as a cardboard compactor at Rand/Sarratt;
  • Expansion of recycling efforts at Student Move-In through improved collaboration with Students Promoting Environmental Awareness and Responsibility (SPEAR) to successfully recycle 33 tons of cardboard, an 83 percent increase in cardboard recycling from the prior year; and
  • Improved collaboration with SPEAR, Vanderbilt Athletics, and Waste Management, Inc., at home football games to collect plastic, aluminum cans and cardboard from fans during tailgating and implementation of the new Vanderbilt Athletics Sustainability Challenge.
              
 
So What is ETSU Campus Dining Doing to be Sustainable?
 
-Batch Cooking and Portion Control: both control and minimize waste
 -Bulk condiment dispensers: minimize plastic bottle usage and waste in general
-Limit dish machine usage to peak periods only
-All campus dining locations use Recycled Content paper products: Napkins- 30% Recycled Content, Paper Towels and Toilet Paper- 100% Recycled Content
-Turn off all lights at night and on sunny days when lights are not needed
-Valley Proteins, a local company, diverts and recycles 100% of our fryer oil
-We are also working with SGA and the Sustainability Committee on campus to propose Tray Less Dining in the Market Place.
 

Local Foods

-We purchase all breads from Flowers Bakery, located in Morristown, TN

-Also, purchase our individually bottled and bulk water from Pristine Springs in Kingsport, TN

-85% of our food and paper products are purchased from Sysco- Knoxville. As a company Sysco strives to only purchase local products (usually within a 100 miles)

 

                 
 Nothing "Fishy" about this Public Service Announcement
  

If you are on the campus at the University of Memphis, you may have noticed the bright blue and green placards with a picture of a fish reading "No Dumping! Drains to River" appearing on storm drains around the U of M. Physical Plant & Planning has placed more than 500 of the signs next to the drains to alert people that nothing should be dumped into them. Student worker Jason Kirby placed the placards and now is working to install more on the Park Avenue Campus.

 

The project was spurred by a mandate from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to ensure that water leaving storm drains on campus is as clean or cleaner than when it entered.

 

"We have to make sure that no soil or sediment from construction areas gets in the drains," says John Farrell, manager of landscape and pest control services. The biggest problem, though, says Farrell, is trash thrown on the ground. "We spend an average of 50 hours a day picking up trash. Our first two hours are spent picking up cigarette butts and trash. These are hours we could spend performing landscape tasks. All of the pollutants that enter our storm drains end up in the ditches, creeks and eventually the Mississippi River."

Kirby is taking a campus map around with him and marking everywhere he finds a storm drain inlet.

 

"Once we identify all the drains, we will assign a number to each one and a numbered placard will be installed," says Farrell. "This number will be incorporated into the new mapping system and will help us to identify specific drains when issues arise. Our goal is to have a notification system for the public to report any illicit discharges in the storm drains so we can investigate and remedy any problems discovered. Individuals will be able to go to a web link that will soon be created and fill out a short form that will identify the drain by number and give us a brief description of the problem."

 

Even if you're not directly dumping anything into a storm drain, pollution can occur. Rainwater washes soil, street litter, oil, leaves, grass clippings, pet wastes and fertilizers into storm drains. Material flowing into storm drains does not get treated before emptying into streams, rivers, lakes and oceans. This untreated material can pollute the waterways in the community. Although individual storm drains may contribute small amounts of pollutants, the combination of many storm drains can cause a negative impact on water quality.

 

           

 Training Announcement

 

Retail Dining Operations:  Opportunities for Source Reduction & Materials Management on December 12 at 1:00 p.m., EST. 

 

Click on the logo to the left to register for this informative webinar.

 

 TELL US YOUR STORY!!!

If you have a story for our monthly newsletter, please share it.  Our newsletter will be sent out the fourth Wednesday of each month.  Deadlines for story submissions will be the last Friday of each month.  This monthly newsletter is published by TDEC Office of Sustainable Practices.