Waste Audit Helps University at Buffalo (NY) Identify Opportunities to Improve Recycling

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Just over a ton of trash is collected across UB’s three campuses every day. Making sure that the campus community understands how to properly dispose of all that waste is a critical component of the university’s goal to become climate neutral and move toward zero waste by 2030.

That’s why, on a recent weekday morning, UB Sustainability Zero Waste Manager Erin Moscati and a team of student and staff volunteers got together to complete a grimy, stinky — but very important — task: conducting a waste audit of campus trash. Over the course of two days, they collected 2,140 pounds of trash and recycling generated over a few days from a dozen buildings on the North, South and Downtown campuses and sorted through 1,569 pounds of it.

The point of all this? Education. “Waste audits help identify opportunities to reduce waste, inform and justify development of sustainable consumption programs, and clearly see where improvements to recycling can be made,” says Moscati. Given that UB produces approximately 1.2 tons of garbage daily, it’s imperative that trash is properly sorted, meaning anything that can be recycled is placed into a recycling tote instead of the garbage bin. The waste audit was revealing in that it helped UB Sustainability identify both points of confusion and opportunities to improve.

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantage.com