Recycling, Compost & Waste

An engineer, an entrepreneur and an environmentalist walk into a vacated airplane hangar ... or, in the case of the UW Environmental Innovation Challenge, held on April 1, hundreds of them ventured into Hangar 30 in Seattle's Magnuson Park.
That's where 19 interdisciplinary student teams demonstrated their clean-tech innovations before a who's-who list of industry experts serving as judges for the competition. Challengers vied for prizes totaling $22,500.

Residence halls and dining facilities generated 600 tons of compost at the UW last year, and some ASUW senators are attempting to increase this effort with a resolution to expand composting to other areas of campus.

The resolution recommends that UW Recycling and Solid Waste create a pilot program to place compost bins in buildings throughout campus. ASUW will vote on the legislation in the coming weeks.

“Right now, we have the momentum,” said Matt Zemek, ASUW senator and sponsor of the resolution. “I saw that HFS had a very successful composting program.”

What: Trash-In 2010--a mini trash sort
Where: Bryant Annex, 1137 NE Boat Street/Parking Lot W34 (just west of Agua Verde)
When: 8:30am to 1:30pm; come when you can—you do not need to be here for the entire sort
Why: Believe it or not, sorting trash is cool!
 

Road construction is a more-than-$80 billion annual industry in the United States. Yet nothing comparable to the LEED rating system for buildings, or the Energy Star system for appliances, exists for highways and roads.

Bathrooms in the residence halls tore through 14,000 rolls of paper towels from March to October 2009, a number that got Kara Tebeau thinking about waste — how much we put out as a society and as students.

“UW is a really sustainable, green campus; we set the bar when it comes to being green, right? Why don’t we be green in every way we can?” Tebeau, a member of Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED) said.

What does King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division and the company General BioDiesel have in common? They are both interested in your cooking oil. More specifically, King County does not want it clogging their sewer lines, and General BioDiesel wants to convert it into fuel.

This partnering is notable because there is a lack of major waste-to-energy programs in Seattle. While not without its problems, waste-to-energy can solve some of the city’s needs for new energy sources and waste disposal.

UW Housing and Food Services is one step closer to reaching its goal of zero-waste with the introduction of the first compostable soda cup lid.
 
Previously the on-campus community was taught to compost both the straw and cup, but to remove the lid. A compostable soda straw has been used on campus for over two years and a compostable cold-beverage cup has been in use since November of 2008. The lid was the missing link up until last week.
 
Now when a soda cup is purchased on campus, every piece is compostable--making composting more user-friendly.

If green is the new black, then the University of Washington is one of the trendiest campuses in the nation.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the UW is the second most eco-friendly college in the country, behind only the University of Colorado, Boulder. The UW’s high ranking is largely due to the fact that Housing and Food Services (HFS) recently teamed up with International Paper and the Coca-Cola Company to create an ecotainer cup that is 100-percent compostable.

Trash, garbage, waste.

The name we give our unwanted items represent the low value we attribute to them. Who would want old notebooks, pizza crusts, or plastic bags?

With every Washingtonian producing approximately eight pounds of solid waste per day according to the Department of Ecology, we have an obligation to ensure not all of it ends up in a landfill. Thankfully, these disposables can go on to have a second, third, or even fourth life if we put in a little effort.

The best ways are often the cheapest.

The Dawg Daze Technology Fair included a presentation on "Green IT" by Kelli Trosvig, Chief Operating Officer, UW Technology.  As part of the Climate Action Plan, UW's sustainability initiatives will look at various strategies such as green purchasing, power management, data center efficiencies, consolidation and virutalization.  The presentation was shared with students, staff and faculty who attended this year's Technology Fair.

View the Green IT Presentation