Duke University Greening Initiative: Waste Management Committee Fall 2009 Update:
The DUGI Waste Management Committee made the decision to focus on recycling on campus. The committee felt that recycling has the best opportunity for impact since there was already some progress that had been made last year with GPSC Green Team and the committee felt there was a lot of room for improvement. The committee is currently working on an online survey that will be distributed to Nicholas School of the Environment students, faculty, and staff to get opinions on recycling practices in the Nicholas School and where there may be areas to target for improvement. Once survey results are in, the committee plans to look into a pilot recycling project for improving recycling in the Nicholas School. Additional project ideas include (1) a printer cartridge recycling station allowing students to bring cartridges from home for recycling and (2) working with Duke Recycles to re-label recycling bins on campus to reflect commingled rather than separated recycling (currently, recycling bins on campus ask people to separate bottles, cans, and paper). The plan is to start these projects early in spring semester (2010).
Composting on Campus:
Between the spring and summer of 2009, three compost bins were built on Duke's campus. Combine, they have a 3.5 ton capacity for handling compostable materials.
Two bins are located at the on-campus community gardens (The Honey Patch on Anderson Street and the Duke Community Garden on Faber Street). These compost bins serve the community gardens and Henry's kitchen at the Jewish Center).
The largest bin is located in the south courtyard of the LSRC A-wing and it is affiliated with the Nicholas School. All community members are encouraged to bring their compostable items to this bin.
Students for Sustainable Living: Waste and Recycling Team
Our team has three main focuses for this semester, each ranked based on urgency and feasibility:
1) Coffee Break with Duke Recycles: This is a program targeted toward faculty and staff in both academic and administrative buildings to help raise awareness about the resources available to them through the recycling office and Sustainable Duke. we will be collaborating with Duke recycles to help finalize project plans and logitics and help give presentations to various campus offices.
2) Other tangible, easily doable projects: Labeling, sinage, etc. (we will need to talk to other groups that are doing this to collaborate), advertising/marketing for different initiatives on campus (e.g. "Buy-a-Bin" and "Move Out for Charity"), the free store, and a resource guide/inventory to help Arwen keep track of contacts and to further develop this wiki page.
3) In the midst of the above two, we hope to focus on developing plans for the implementation of creative/innovative ideas. One such idea we would help with, which is already building momentum, is creating a vending machine that takes back your empty cans. Overall, the idea here is to help raise awareness about the creative possibilities within the waste and recycle sector and help to initiate a so called "creative movement".