Waste Minimization & Recycling Overview STEVEN SWEENEY & D TYLER KIDDER

Transcription

1 2014 Waste Minimization & Recycling Overview UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MAINE, THREE YEAR REPORT STEVEN SWEENEY & D TYLER KIDDER

2 Recycling at USM 3 Year Overview USM has been recycling for over 20 years. Three years ago the recycling program was overhauled to revitalize and strengthen it. The following pages outline initiatives put forth by the sustainability team and the resulting improvements and savings. When this work began in 2011 USM was generating 600 tons of waste per year. The cost to handle that waste was $60,000. The recycling rate was 34%, which was the national average at the time. The state of Maine goal was to have large companies and institutions recycling at 50%. The first step in the overhaul was to invest in new recycling stations and signage to develop a clean and consistent appearance campus wide. 1

3 Gorham Roll off containers Previously, wood and metal were piled on the ground behind the carpenter shop in Gorham. This led to other mixed material being thrown in and it was very unsightly. Periodically the grounds crew would have to assign a crew to clean it up. The material was hauled in pickup trucks to CPRC and tipped as a mixed load, at a considerable cost in time and money. Now there are roll off cans on campus for various materials and the staff has been educated on separation of waste. This is how the numbers work out after placing roll off cans in Gorham: To handle waste wood: The avg. wood can weighs 1 ton at a cost of $40/ton plus $110 for pickup equals $150 for a total cost. If we had instead hauled this wood to CPRC as we previously did it would have been at least five trips using two staffers and a truck. Five trips costing approximately $75/trip is a total cost of $375. If you add $40 for the wood tip fee the total comes to about $415 to handle scrap waste wood. This method compared to the newer method of providing a roll off can for wood generates a savings of $265. Additionally, the manpower is freed up from this task and available for other activities. To handle scrap metal: The metal can cost nothing for rental and $110 for pick up. As an example, value of the material from one load (2900 lbs of mixed scrap metal) was $297 for a net gain of $187. This system is successful and ongoing and continues to save USM money and labor hours. 2

4 Outside trash containers Previously USM had 26 outside trash containers on the Portland campus. Each day a Grounds crew member would drive around and empty each one and replace the bag which took about two hours per day. Based on these numbers and a labor cost of $25 an hour, maintaining these outside waste containers cost the university $13,338 annually. In a conversation with the Grounds Crew it was revealed that most of the trash going into these containers was from the neighborhood. People would utilize USM containers to avoid purchasing bags from the city and would also place recyclables and returnables in the trash. Since USM already had waste stations inside every building on campus it seemed redundant to also have them outside. All but three were removed there was immediate less litter and few complaints. Two months after removing them we did get a complaint from a woman who had been walking her dog on campus and could not find a can in which to throw her dog waste. Annual savings approx. $20, Annual Cost to maintain outdoor trash cans Labor 2 hours per day =10 hours/ week 25 per hour = $250/week Times 52 weeks $13, Bags 10 a day times 5 x.20 times 52 $ Truck& gas $6, cost of trash approx 200#'s per week 10400#'s per year = 5.2 Tons $ Total $20, This does not include cost to purchase new or replacement containers. 3

5 Coffee Grounds In 2011 we observed a substantial amount of coffee grounds going into the trash. After discussing this with the Grounds supervisor it was determined that we could collect and use them as a soil amendment on lawns and plant beds. We collected and cleaned used cleaning product buckets and labeled them for collection of coffee grounds. The buckets were placed at all USM Dining locations that make coffee (two in Portland, two in Gorham). We worked with USM Dining to train and educate their staff on grounds collection, a training that we duplicate at the beginning of each school year. Currently we are collecting four to five tons of coffee grounds per year. Some are still being used directly on the gardens as a soil amendment, others are being recycled into loam with USM s lawn and brush waste. Annual savings of $400 to $500 per year. Learn more: 4

6 Food Waste In Gorham USM has been recovering food waste for many years. A local pig farmer picked up the food at the Brooks Dining center twice a week. Due to the level of contamination in the food, he charged the University $500 a month to remove the food waste. Recently we negotiated with a new farmer at a reduced price of $200 a month. The average weight of food collected has been 3000 pounds a week while school is in session. In 2013 USM Portland we partnered with Garbage to Garden, a local curbside composting company, to place a collection unit in the Woodbury Campus Center Food Court. They built us a custom unit (shown above). Additionally we have been working with the USM Dining staff to collect more post-consumer food waste from their operations. The catering team has started to provide public food bins at events and food pails for cleanup after events. In addition, the staffers at the Luther Bonney kiosk unwrap and compost expired food instead of throwing it in the trash. We are now collecting 300 to 400 pounds a week in Portland. The cost to dispose of this material with regular waste would be $7,000 annually. Our current cost is $2,000. This is an annual savings of about $5,000. 5

7 Bags and Paper Products During 2012 we took a look at bags and paper products. USM had not gone out to bid on these in a number of years. It was discovered that four departments were ordering products from four different suppliers. Res-Life and Athletics were paying twice as much for products as Facilities Management. For the year 2012 USM s three campuses spent $115,000 on Paper towels, toilet paper, and bin liners of various types. With the projections from the winning bid it is expected our costs for 2013 will be approx. $52,000 which is a savings of more than 50%. Looking at bags, Res-Life purchased 20,000 43X47 2mil bags. This quantity of bags weighs eight tons. In talking with our supplier we were able to replace the 2 mil low density bags with a 22 mic. high density bag. The high density bags were $1,000 less and, when thrown away, will weigh only five tons. This saves three tons of trash per year just in the weight of the actual bags, not counting the weight of their contents. In 2012 USM purchased 950 cases of paper towels at a cost of $28,000. Since paper towels are not recyclable the 950 cases represent 9.6 tons of trash at a cost of $100 a ton. Adding in the labor to handle them (five minutes per roll equals 2,375 hrs.) at $25/hr. creates a total of $59,375. All together the use of paper towels costs USM $88,000 a year. This led us to take a look at hand dryers. 6

8 Hand Dryers USM had a mix of paper towel dispensers and warm air hand dryers throughout the campuses. Anyone who has used one knows that warm air dryers do not work well and they are also expensive to operate due to their energy demands. There are a few studies out comparing old warm air hand dryers with new high speed hand dryers. The newer dryers offer a 10 second dry time and use 80% less energy to operate. USM has begun replacing the older hand dryers with new forced air hand dryers. The purchase price is $242. A new unit costs approximately $144 less per year to operate than a warm air dryer. This makes the pay back on the purchase price just 20 months. The energy savings per unit for a ten year period less the purchase price is $1,200. The Law building on the Portland campus had 17 old warm air hand dryers and it had paper towel dispensers, often both in the same restroom. The cost to operate the hand dryers was about $3,077. The building used 34 cases of paper towels at a cost of $816. The labor cost to handle the paper towels was $10,200. This brings the total cost to $14,093 per year. We removed the paper towel dispensers and replaced the old dryers with new ones. The purchase price of the new units was $4,131. The energy cost to run the new units is approx. $615 annually. The total cost first year is $4,746. This is a savings of $9,347 and allows custodial staff to spend time on more important cleaning tasks. 7

9 Tiny Trash In 2012 the USM Sustainability department initiated the Tiny Trash Program. We found that office trash pickup was labor intensive and expensive. There was no real incentive to recycle. Most of what is used in an office environment (90%) is recyclable. The university provided a 41 qt. trash can and a 41 qt. recycle container at every employee work space, each unit costing $8 to purchase new. The bags that go in the trash cans cost $2,200 per year. USM had 45 custodians that spent the first hour of their day just picking up trash in offices and classrooms. By replacing their 41 qt. trash can with a 32 oz. desktop container it forced staff to take a second look at what they were throwing away. Centralized trash cans were made available for staff in which to empty their personal Tiny Trash. Overall the program got a positive reception. After the program was operational we saw an increase in overall recycling rates, (34%-46%). Individual offices (our pilot areas where we weighed waste before and after) were seeing recycling rates between 75% and 85%. The program saved replacement costs on trash cans, bag purchases, and labor collecting waste. Tyler Kidder & Steve Sweeney won an eco-excellence Award from ecomaine for the Tiny Trash program in Other campuses have since replicated this model. Learn more: 8

10 Wire and Metal USM has been recycling metal for several years utilizing a third party for pickups and was receiving approximately 25% of value by doing it that way. In 2012 we began collecting and delivering material directly using roll off containers. This methodology, and an increased effort toward separation of materials, has greatly increased USM s revenue for scrap metal. Period 2011 Jan-Jun 2012 Jul-Dec 2012 Jan-Jun 2013 Jul-Dec 2013 Jan-Jun 2014 Tons Value $ $ $ $ $ $4443 Per ton value $62 $69 $177 $254 $ $296.2 The per ton value has increased over time because we have gotten better at separating the more valuable materials. Unsorted scrap metal is worth about.08/lb, aluminum is worth.45/lb, wire and appliance cords that used to be thrown in the waste are worth $1.25/lb. From May through September of 2014 USM recycled 51,755lbs total of light iron, aluminum, wire, and electric motors and received $6, in revenue (see chart on following page). 9

11 date wire Lt. Iron Aluminum Electric motors 12/12/2013 E.Perry 420 $ /4/2013 E.Perry 1050 $1,260 10/4/2013 E.Perry 2850 $228 9/18/2013 E.Perry 1750 $140 9/9/2013 E.Perry 320 $ $90 7/8/2013 E.Perry 420 $210 6/20/2013 Schnitzer 3880 $ /5/2013 E.Perry 2980 $ /4/2013 Schnitzer /17/2013 E.Perry /9/2013 Schnitzer /29/2013 E.Perry /20/2013 E.Perry 8 $12 47 $ $8 2/7/2013 Schnitzer /15/2013 E.Perry 340 $ Total 2018 $2, $1, $1, $ Date wire Lt. iron Aluminum Elec. motors weight value weight value weight value weight value 5/22/ $ $ /2/ $ /25/ $ /25/ $ /28/ $ /29/ $ /14/ $ /18/ $ /30/ $ /1/ $ /24/ $ /28/ $ $ /4/ $ /5/ $ /15/ $ /1/ $ /2/ $ /16/ $ /2/ $ /18/ $ total 1610 $1, $3, $ $

12 Electronic Waste In 2012 The Office of Sustainability had E-cyclers built for the collection of batteries, cell phones, and Ink cartridges to address a demand to recycle these items outside of the single stream recycling in the public waste stations. After researching purchasing units through various manufacturers and finding the price to be high, the units were built by the trades staff at Lewiston Auburn College for a fraction of the cost of buying them. There is a wooden electronic waste recycling kiosk in each of the libraries on the three campuses. Recycling some batteries costs USM but it prevents them from going to the incinerator and therefore justifies their collection. We are able to sell cell phones by the pound to our E-waste recycler and all sizes and types of ink and toner cartridges are sent to a recycler for credit. In 2013 we received $650 for returned cartridges. In April of 2012 we held our first Community Electronic Waste Recycling Day in partnership with the City of Portland, North Coast Recycling, and Pine Tree Waste. Five hundred cars dropped off E-waste for free and 12,000 lbs was collected at no cost to the community or USM. We duplicated this event in 2014 where 700 cars were served and 63,000 lbs of electronic waste was collected and recycled. Additionally, volunteers accepted monetary donations for the Preble Street Resource Center from community members who were dropping off waste and collected over $1,500 for the Center. The goal is to make this event an annual tradition. 11

13 Ink and Toner Cartridges USM Recycles has been collecting ink and toner cartridges for several years. The empty cartridges have a value because they can be refilled. For 2011 and 2012 USM received $50 each revenue for Cartridges sent to CFK in Colorado. Each cartridge purchased comes with a free UPS shipping label allowing the purchaser to return the cartridge to the manufacturer, unfortunately with no credit. Early in 2013 The Office of Sustainability put out an asking staff to send their cartridges to USM Recycles instead of the manufacturer. At the end of 2013 revenue for cartridges was $650 due to the increased volume. This volume continues to hold steady. Recently we made contact with a local supplier in Scarborough called Cartridge World. Cartridge World is matching the price that CFK had been paying and they pick up cartridges on the Portland campus. This saves time and materials by not having to ship boxes, and decreases the distance the cartridges travel thereby limiting the carbon emissions involved. In the interest of closing the loop, Cartridge World is able to provide competitive pricing on many types of refilled cartridges utilized by USM. 12

14 Returnable Bottles USM has been collecting returnable bottles since we began recycling over twenty years ago. The income from returnables has been a good offset to our waste costs. In Gorham money from bottles goes to student programs. In the last half of 2011 the Portland revenue for bottles was $926. Checks from the redemption center, however, were spotty and the check amounts did not seem consistent with the volume of bottles dropped off. We do not choose to spend labor hours counting bottles and cans so we rely on the honor system with the redemption centers. This is standard practice with larger customers. Early in 2012 we switched to a different redemption center and for the first 6 months of the year bottle revenue for Portland was $1,538. Six month incremental revenue after that is as follows: Jul-Dec 2012: $ Jan-Jun 2013: $ Jul-Dec 2013: $ Currently each campus, Portland and Gorham generates approximately $3,000 a year in bottle revenue. 13

15 Waste Evaluation/ Chair Project During the summer of 2012 USM was upgrading classroom furniture. This meant getting rid of 650 thirty-year-old tablet arm chairs. We first contacted local schools, Ruth s Reusables, and outfits that supply supplies to schools in Africa. Nobody wanted this furniture because it was heavy and out of date. The next step was to find the most cost effective and responsible way of disposing of them. We did a cost analysis and found that the most efficient way to handle the chairs was to take them apart in the classrooms (thereby reducing the number of trips carrying them) before hauling them outside. The metal was separated and generated revenue. Chairs not separated 650 chairs 30#s ea. is 19500#s at $107/ ton $1, move 5 at a time 130trips 5 min/trip 11 hrs. 13.5/hr. $ cans $85 ea. $ Cost $1, Chairs taken apart take apart 3 min ea hrs. 13.5/hr. $ move 8 at a time 82 trips 6.8 hrs. $ cans $85 ea. $ trash 4.9 ton 107/ton $ metal 4.9 ton 170/ton -$ Cost $

16 Mindful Move-Out and Yard sale Spring move out of residential students generates lots of waste and can be expensive to handle. In 2012 we started measuring this waste and in 2013 and 2014 we implemented Mindful Moveout, the program created to reduce waste and costs while making the move out experience better for students, parents, and USM Staff. Instead of offering open dumpsters, the Office of Sustainability Team built on the ongoing tradition of Free Cycle Areas located in lounges in the residence halls where students could leave unwanted items. These items were then collected from the individual dorms and stored over the summer. The 2013 pilot was successful and yielded enough collected usable material to hold a yard sale during Welcome Weekend when the students move back onto campus in the fall. Students and parents were very excited to be able to purchase items they had forgotten to bring or did not have space for in the car. Most items sold for 2-3 dollars and 85% of the items collected were sold, mostly on the first day of the sale when first year students were moving in. Move out cost comparison for 2012 and 2013 In 2012 for move out in May we had 5 compactor pick ups at a cost of $600 The waste cost for the 19 tons of material was $1,672 We also had 4 30-yard roll off containers at a cost of $700 The charge for the 10 tons of material was. $750 Our total cost for disposal $3,722 For 2013 Utilizing a trailer to capture re-usable items we recovered 1 ton of clothing Donated to Preble Street Resource Center and Goodwill, and 1 ton of household items to be put in a yard sale for residential students. We also picked up 1 ton of T.V. s recycled through North Coast at a cost of. $75 The trailer cost.. $398 We had 4 compactor pick ups at a cost of $440 The cost of the 24 tons of waste was $2,112 Total cost $3,025 Revenue from yard sale was $350, bringing the cost down to $2,675 This represents a savings of $1,047 Learn more: 15

17 Gorham Thrift Store Inspired by the success of the first Mindful Move-Out and Welcome Weekend yard sale in 2013, the Office of Sustainability collected even more unwanted furnishings in the spring of 2014 from moving out students. Again the materials were stored in a storage trailer over the summer where the team evaluated, cleaned, and organized the items. In August 2014 we got permission to utilize an unneeded office space in the basement of Anderson Hall on the Gorham campus as a student-focused thrift store. The store was stocked with materials collected from the Mindful Move-Out the previous spring and the grand opening was over Welcome Weekend with an even bigger and better yard sale than the previous year. Parents and students were thrilled with the selection and availability of needed items at bargain prices. The Gorham Thrift store is open two afternoons a week and carries hangers, desk lamps, dishes, bed risers, power strips, decorations, and many other necessities of dorm living. The goal is to partner with Residential Life to have multiple opportunities for students to clean out their unwanted belongings during the school year before each major break from classes through expanded FreeCycles (before winter holidays, spring break, and at move out). This will provide a continuous and seasonally appropriate inventory for the Thrift Store. The thrift store will also be partially staffed by work study students by late fall Learn more: 16

18 Lighting Since used fluorescent lamps contain mercury and are considered universal waste the task of ordering and changing lights was given to the waste management team. Historically four foot lamps have been 32 watt but for several years USM has been purchasing low mercury 25 W bulbs for replacement. The lower mercury content is better for the environment and the 7 W reduction in energy consumption represents about $7 in annual savings for each bulb that is in use full time. In 2013 USM purchased and replaced 900 lamps. This represents an annual energy savings of $6300. Working with Will Dunlay, USM s previous Director of Energy and Utilities, we have also replaced numerous 35 and 50 W halogen bulbs with 12 W LEDs. LEDs have a considerably longer lifespan and use a fraction of the energy. The team has also been evaluating areas on campus that are overlit where a bulb or two can be removed from a fixture while still illuminating the space. This reduces bulb purchases, labor to change bulbs, and electricity used. In addition to installing more efficient lights, we have been actively reducing our on-hand inventory of lamps for the last three years. The goal is to reduce the amount of money tied up in inventory and allow us to be nimble in responding to frequently changing Efficiency Maine rebates as well as re-lamping opportunities. Having a smaller inventory also uses less space and is easier for staffers to manage. 17

19 Liquid Recovery At USM, as with many public waste collection sites, many students throw recyclable cups and bottles into the trash if they still contain remnants of a beverage instead of recycling them. This can increase the need to double bag the trash to prevent spills when custodial staffers are emptying the bins. Even with the trash double bagged there are still many hours spent each year on carpet cleaning to remove coffee and soda spills. Our contract with ecomaine mandates that we pay by the ton to dispose of trash but we can tip recyclable materials for free. Therefore it is more economical to increase our recycling tonnage and decrease our trash tonnage. Liquids weigh approximately eight pounds per gallon, making them expensive to dispose of in the trash. Additionally, our trash goes to an incinerator and liquids do not burn. During the summer of 2013 we began converting our waste stations to include liquid recovery. In waste stations that already had four openings (which had been used for returnable bottles, single stream recycling, and two openings for trash) a liquids collection system was easy to add. Funnels cost $2.25 and we used discarded fryer oil jugs from Dining Services to hold the liquids. The team inventoried the new liquid stations on the Portland campus and found that over a month there was a total of 23 to 35 gallons collected per day. At an average of 29 gallons USM is collecting 232 lbs of liquids a day which translates to 20 tons of waste per year. All of these liquids can be poured down the drain in custodial closets at no cost and will not harm the sewer system. Conservatively, liquid diversion could save USM $2,000 per year, with the opportunity to improve upon that with greater participation by users. 18

20 Used Fryer Oil Prior to July 2012 USM s waste fryer oil was being picked up by Maine Standard Bio fuels for recycling into bio-diesel at no cost or gain to the University and prior to that it had been picked up by Baker Commodities, a relationship managed by USM Dining Services. In June of 2012 USM went out to bid on waste oil collection. The bid was awarded to Amenico through Pine Tree Waste and stipulates that Amenico pays $1.01 per gallon picked up as well as provides the collection vessel. period Gallons Value Jul-Dec $ Jan-Jun $279.2 Jul-Dec $ Jan-Jun $

21 Summary The University of Southern Maine is proud to have an aggressive and cutting edge waste reduction program. The Sustainability Team is striving to reach higher and higher goals of waste diversion and recycling rates. The chart below is our progress so far. We work with the regional branch of the EPA as well as EcoMaine, our waste contractors, students, staff, and faculty to discover new ways to continue to expand awareness of recycling and other waste minimization behaviors. Please visit our Recycling and Waste Minimization website to find information about signage, awards, events, programs, and more. Sincerely, Steven Sweeney, Resource Recovery Supervisor Tyler Kidder, Assistant Director for Sustainable Programs Year USM Recycling Rate Annual Cost % $58, % $35, % $24, % $14,000 20