Waste and Recycling Archives - Page 3 of 8

Education

Making the Most of Student Move Out

If you manage recycling programs at a residential campus, student move out is one of the most frantic periods of the year. If you’re new to the process, it can be overwhelming. But, regardless of whether you are still planning for move out, staring at the piles of discarded stuff accumulating as students are moving out, or have already missed your window of opportunity and are merely leaving notes for things to do better next year, focusing on the six items below will help.

May 6, 2015

Education

Restricted Access

Restrictive lids are one of if not the most effective way to reduce contamination in a recycling bin. Restrictive lids restrict the type of material that can be placed into a bin. For recycling to work, you have to segregate the materials that you want to recycle from those that you don’t.If you didn’t have a restrictive lid you would typically rely on a label on the front of your bin to identify that stream. But for bin labels to work most effectively, you need a clear line of sight and adequate time to read the label.

April 2, 2015

Planning

Recycling Program Budget

Successfully growing and sustaining recycling programs can sometimes depend on something as simple as where you budget recycling expenses. As budgets are being set for next fiscal year, now is the time to think about what you want accomplish next year, how you want to fund it, and perhaps most importantly, where you want to fund it.

December 19, 2014

Planning

Improve Cost Effectiveness of Your Recycling Program, Part 2

Rather than just looking for outside funding sources, have you looked to see whether there are ways to enhance the revenues that you receive for your recyclables to get you the extra funding that you need? What items on your wish list could you fund if you took advantage of those opportunities?

October 8, 2014

Planning

Improve Cost Effectiveness of Your Recycling Program, Part 1

One often overlooked opportunity is collection efficiency. Recycling does not increase the total amount of waste that you generate. Recycling takes a portion of that waste and diverts it out of the trash into another container or containers. As a result, the more you recycle, the fewer the amount of labor and financial resources you should have to dedicate to trash collection.

September 19, 2014

Planning

When the Coast is Clear

Now that summer attendance has dropped, do you still need the same level of trash and recycling pickup that you had in July? Have you met with your waste hauler? Do you have a plan with your waste hauler and recycling service provider to scale back on the frequency of pickup and/or size of your containers during the off season? Have you identified when the start of next season is and when you will need additional pickups again?

September 11, 2014

Education

Sustainability at Student Orientation

Orientation for new college & university students is almost here. Whether your orientation is a weekend or an entire week, it can be an important but tricky opportunity. At many schools you have every member of the incoming class concentrated into a handful of events or even a single event. If you can get into that event, or events, it provides a tremendous opportunity to access and convey information to the entire incoming student body.

August 8, 2014

Best Practices

What You Buy & What You Throw Away

Somewhere along the line we have become distracted by aggregated waste audits and national studies. In the process we too often miss a simple correlation.

July 22, 2014

Logistics

Riding the Market

Several months ago, I wrote a blog entry called “Knowing what you’ve got” to try to help people understand that recyclables are commodities and to encourage people to recognize the various grades of material they might have. However, in re-reading that post, I wanted to return to that topic to help people understand how to use that information to market their recyclables.

June 19, 2014

Best Practices

Window of Opportunity

Sometimes timing is everything. Or if not everything, timing can sometimes have a significant impact on your program’s success.

June 10, 2014

Commercial Food Waste Bins

California Businesses — are you prepared for the AB-1826 Mandate?

Accentuate with Furniture

Compost & Food Waste Collection Bins

Commercial Food Waste Bins

California Businesses — are you prepared for the AB-1826 Mandate?

Compost & Food Waste Collection Bins