Red Bricks / Green Campus

By Susie P. Gonzalez

Trinity delegation prepares to tour Greenstar's recycling facility.

Styrofoam to-go boxes and cafeteria trays are out. Earth-friendly bamboo carryout containers and vegetable composting at Mabee Dining Hall are in. The green movement has taken the country, and now, Trinity University, by storm. Spurred by student interest, but fueled by an administrative desire to reduce costs for having garbage hauled away, Trinity’s sustainability program is prompting a major shift in all things trash. For starters, the campus has increased recycling of cardboard, plastic, and paper and has stopped using Styrofoam to-go containers and serving trays in the campus food service operation. Next up is desk-side recycling and a new attitude.

Richard Reed, professor and chair of sociology and anthropology and also chair of the President’s Task Force on Sustainability, says programs enacted across campus already have begun to transform the “culture of consumption.” He preaches the environmental mantra of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” and cites examples of Trinity’s action on all three fronts.

• To reduce trash, the campus caterer, Aramark, is replacing Styrofoam food containers with biodegradable bamboo, and the campus mail center and Campus & Community Involvement office have stopped printing announcements about programs, calendars, and other publications, encouraging faculty, students, and parents to log onto the Web site, www.trinity.edu, for current information.
  
  
• To emphasize reuse, Aramark this fall will begin using 500-pound composting bins called Earth Tubs^©   where food waste in the kitchen prep areas at the Commons and at Mabee Dining Hall will be converted into landscape fertilizer.

Put your recycled materials in one of these.

• Meanwhile, recycling programs have ramped up dramatically on campus. During the 2007-2008 academic year, a student group pushed to intensify recycling programs. As the students began collecting stacks of cardboard and paper, Physical Plant administrators looked for ways to get rid of it. A cardboard baler was brought in on a pilot basis, proving to be an instant success. Boxes that arrive on campus bearing food, paper goods, and office supplies are now emptied of their contents and flattened at the baler – named Oscar in honor of Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street – housed in the Prassel Garage next to the Physical Plant offices. Even better, the city’s recycling partner, a private company called Greenstar, pays Trinity $500 for each ton of cardboard they take away, according to John Greene, Physical Plant director.  In addition, plastic water and beverage bottles will be bundled and sold, as will office paper, newspapers, and other items placed in recycling tubs that will be placed in all offices and residential buildings. 

Hauling away recycled material.

Who knew the price of garbage? Mr. Greene says the University paid about $100,000 last school year for solid waste disposal. What better way to reduce that figure than by ramping up an aggressive recycling program that would translate into less trash going into dumpsters and more recyclables leaving campus as a revenue stream? He and his assistant director, Mike Schweitzer, asked Greenstar executives to help map out a recycling campaign that would translate into paying less for trash to be hauled away because items formerly viewed as garbage would instead be deposited into recycling bins. One example of trash-to-treasure is plastic water bottles. “Trinity generates 800 pounds a week in plastic bottles. When you consider that each bottles weighs one-tenth of an ounce, you can see how many bottles it takes to add up to 800 pounds,” Mr. Schweitzer said. “The idea is to limit the number of hauls and keep it out of the landfill,” where it takes as many as 700 years for the plastic to biodegrade.

Miguel Ardid, director of Trinity University Dining Services, and Tracy Knox, project manager of GCA Custodial Services, agreed to support the enhanced “green” effort. Mr. Ardid says going “trayless” will conserve energy and water from automatic dishwashers and encourage moderation in food choices. Students have been gravitating in recent semesters to eating only what they can carry, he says, adding that some trays will be available to those who insist upon using them. In addition, only Fair Trade Coffee will be brewed at Trinity’s java stations and reusable canvas bags with Trinity logos will be sold at the convenience store at the Coates Center. In terms of food service, Mr. Ardid says, “Sustainability is absolutely the right thing to do.”