Grace LaTourelle-

With the Spring semester fully underway, the expectations for students may become convoluted. One of these is waste management. Despite the signage and guides located above the waste receptacles, there may still be questions and confusion. The Sustainability Interns aim to dispel misconceptions about waste management as well as provide education on the topic. 

“…the production of waste means something, that waste goes somewhere after you are done with it,” Sustainability Intern and Sophomore Freya Rising said. 

In 2019, President Rebecca Bergman set a Zero Waste goal for Gustavus. This is defined as 90% of waste being diverted from the landfill or incinerator. The Johnson Center for Environmental Innovation helps to urge our campus towards that goal. 

As Sustainability Manager Kari Wallin described, there are several levels of waste management on campus. While a piece of waste may originate within the dorm, it then has several stops before its ultimate form.

In 2021, Student Senate funded the project to add green mini-compost bins in each dorm room. According to a survey taken in 2021, about 54% students utilized these bins. Using the compostable bags, which are available in each Res-Hall laundry room, students bring the compost out to the yellow Kirbies outside of their dorm. The Grounds Crew picks up the Kirbies and brings them to the composter near Facilities. 

Compost from Dining Services makes up the most compost produced on campus. It is composted for about 3 months, mixed with leaves, and then used in the flower beds around campus and on the Big Hill Farm. 

“If you look closely enough, you might see some forks,” Wallin laughed. “That’s because it’s coming through our composter.”

However, compostable objects such as the forks, usually go into the compactor. Once compacted, the materials get transported to the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Organics Recycling Facility, which turns them into high-grade fertilizer. Currently, 9-10 tonnes of composting is produced each month, with about 10-20% of it remaining on campus to be used. 

Composting has a 5% contamination cutoff, meaning that if more than 5% of the items are non-compostable, the whole 9-10 tonne load has to be landfilled. However, this has not happened yet on campus. 

“We say, ‘When in doubt, throw it out’, because it’s better for things to get misorted in trash than in compost…” Wallin said. “The biggest thing is for folks to realize why it’s important…the broader Zero Waste goal and that we won’t get there if so much stuff that…could be composted or recycled is going into the trash.”

Wallin explained that most of the incorrectly sorted waste on campus is in the form of compostables, such as the ‘clamshell’ to-go containers and coffee cups from the Steamery and Courtyard Cafe going into the trash instead of the compost bins. Wallin noted that even pizza boxes can be composted. 

“…if we can divert this food waste to compost, and reduce our creation of other forms of waste via practices like thrifting, reusing items, recycling… much less of our country…would be taken up by landfills, and much less trash would be floating around our oceans,” Sustainability Intern and Senior Rachel Lester said. 

From the dumpsters outside of dorms, trash gets transported to a landfill in Glencoe, while recycling is brought to the Materials Recycling Facility in Minneapolis.  Similar to composting, recycling also has a 5% contamination cutoff. In this case, contamination can be food, beverage, or any other substance that is non-recyclable. 

“Food and recycling does count as contamination. So rinsing it out is pretty important,” Wallin said. 

Wallin explained that the recycling facility sorts it by a homogenous mixture. Thus, paper plates with food or glass bottles with leftover drinks cannot be considered part of the ‘paper’ or ‘glass’ grouping. Wallin also noted that there is difficulty with recycling certain types of plastics. 

“You should still be trying to recycle your plastics,” Wallin said. “It’s not worth giving up entirely.”

The Sustainability interns have also introduced two types of object-specific recycling initiatives to campus. TREX recycling allows for students to recycle plastic bags, Amazon packaging, and bubble wrap. For every 1,000 pounds recycled, a bench can be created. So far, Wallin noted five of these benches on campus, including the one outside of the BookMark. 

Terracycle is new this year and allows students to recycle personal hygiene items such as cleaned and dried shampoo and body wash bottles, deodorant, floss, toothbrushes, and toothpaste. The current bins are located in the Campus Center, College View, North Hall, Southwest Hall, and Norelius Hall, though they are hoping to put one in all of the dorms. Wallin said that through these initiatives, the Johnson Center hopes to help students do a better job of waste management and sorting, as well as understand the practice of it. 

“We don’t expect people to know all of the exact things that go into each bin, but we love talking to people about how to sort it,” Wallin said.

The Sustainability Interns also identified that another viable option to improving waste on campus is reducing overall consumption.

“Waste management is important in many ways. One of them is that the waste we produce is a reflection of our consumption and the earth’s resources are not finite, nor is the amount of carbon we can put into the atmosphere through the creation of these consumable products before the repercussions catch up to us,” Rising said. “Great steps should be using Gustieware located in the Caf and using reusable cups and containers…”  

The Sustainability Interns are currently working on the sustainability report for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education STARS report, which is completed every four years. 

“In 2021, Gustavus was given a silver rating. We are hoping to receive a Gold rating this year. The process for working on this report includes a lot of data collection and research into college processes,” Sustainability Intern and Senior Emma Forsyth explained. 

Forsyth explained that, to reach the college’s goals for sustainability, student participation is crucial. For more information, students can email Wallin and the Sustainability Interns, as well as follow along on Instagram @gacsustainability. 

“I think as a whole we could do better in thinking about where our waste goes and who it affects downstream…custodial staff, waste haulers and workers off-campus…” Wallin said. 

 “Sorting your waste is just a good way to take care of the land that we’re on and the planet as a whole, even if we’re just in one small corner of it.”