I was thrilled by Kristine King and Katie Mack's submissions to the TNH, in which they highlighted how UNH manages "regular trash" and hazardous wastes. Most people don't get terribly excited by recycling, composting, and proper hazardous waste handling, but to me these actions indicate how an individual, institution, community, or society relates to its environment. By managing our collective waste stream, the university is able to control the dispersal of our waste into the environment - ultimately protecting human health by preserving the quality of our water, air and land.
The university's waste management program extends beyond sorting and disposal of different types of waste. Rather than simply ensuring that our waste is properly handled so it can't escape into the environment, the university also works to create less waste by reusing items and reducing the amount of new material it consumes.
Due to either age or a need for different structures, several building on campus are slated for demolition or renovation. Pettee House and two mini-dorms are included on this list. Rather than knock these buildings over as soon as the final occupant is a safe distance away, these buildings will first be stripped of all useful material, including windows, furniture, light fixtures and wiring for reuse in other buildings. This salvage operation has multiple benefits. It saves landfill space by reducing the amount of material that must be hauled away, a process which also reduces the amount energy consumed during waste transport. In addition, the reused material decreases the amount of new material that UNH must purchase - a process called source reduction. This reduces the amount of virgin material that harvested and processed, therefore reducing the amount of energy consumed, waste created during production, and environmental disturbance. Because it requires virtually no energy, REUSE is preferable to RECYCLE which still uses energy - though much less than purchasing brand new materials.
In fact, the university has an entire program dedicated to REUSE. The UNH Surplus Property Program allows UNH departments to list items such as computers, printers, office furniture, vehicles, and research equipment, which they no longer need or are obsolete. The items are posted on the UNH/USNH Purchasing Website under Surplus Property Listings: http://www.unh.edu/purchasing/surplus/index.html. This program enables items to be transferred to other departments, sold or transferred to other non-profits, or sold to the general public and has enabled hundreds of items with some useful life to be kept out of the waste stream while benefiting others.
The university is currently pursuing the REDUCE option or source reduction as well. It is researching and utilizing procedures that cut the amount of waste generated. For example, UNH now creates less radioactive waste each year due to its adoption of techniques that use smaller scale experiments and by reducing the number of reactions. The same trends are occurring for chemical usage as well. By reducing the amount of radioactive and chemical waste though a reduction in its usage, the university affects waste generation at both ends. Not only is less waste created on campus, but supply companies now make less product.
UNH Dining Services has also incorporated source reduction into its operations. Currently, they use reusable containers for shipments for its convenience store, in-season apples and food from the Organic Garden Club. These containers, once unloaded, are sent back to the vendor for reuse. Dining purchases cleaning supplies and much of the soda served on campus in concentrated form to reduce the weight shipped as well as the amount of packaging that is necessary. Milk, juice and cereal are also purchased in bulk volumes to reduce the amount of packaging in which products arrive.
The success of UNH's waste reduction has occurred in part through the Solid Waste and Environmental Management Planning Team, which identifies waste streams throughout the school and looks for means to reduce the toxicity and the volume of each stream encountered. Students, faculty and staff can help by staying in contact with Facilities and the Office of Environmental Health and Safety (OEHS). These offices are interested in hearing from the UNH community regarding areas of concern as well as innovative or new solutions for our waste streams. The OEHS can be contacted regarding electronic, radioactive, chemical or biological waste (ehs@unh.edu; 862-4041) and Facilities Support Services for recycling (facilities.support@unh.edu; 862-1437).
Reducing the amount of waste is not the sole responsibility of the administration, however. Much of the waste they manage is a produced through the day-to-day actions of the 12,500 or so students on campus. The best means to decrease our collective impact is to prevent waste. To start we can carry reusable mugs and one or two cloth bags in our backpacks for use at stores in town. This will not only allow us to avoid using hundreds of disposable cups and plastic bags each year (multiply this impact by 12,500!), but it also qualifies us for the very respectable refill coffee cup rate at the MUB Coffee Office and Breaking New Grounds. The solution, as always, begins with each of us.
Be the first to comment on this article!