Nominee: University of Oregon Campus Recycling Program's Event Waste Reduction Program

COVERAGE AND LONGEVITY
The focus of this award nomination is on the cutting edge effort that the Program has been making in heading towards zero waste at all campus events. Since 1997, Campus Recycling has been working to address waste management issues at campus events such as: football games, track meets, campus conferences, bi-annual student street fairs and the Willamette Valley Folk Festival. Participation in these events goes anywhere from 50-45,000 people. This effort was catalyzed by students and followed through by Program staff. As you will see, this effort has grown from recovering bottles/cans and paper to include extensive recycling, compostables (which includes food waste and all paper disposables such as plates/napkins etc...) and most recently, expansion to a reusable plate/forks program just at the Folk Festival.

As this effort ensued in 1997, Campus Recycling mainly focused on creating recycling opportunities. This started with the Street Fairs, Folk Festival and Environmental Law Conference. At the beginning, these few events started with recycling of bottles/cans and recyclable paper, cardboard and other food vendor recyclables. Over the years, the program has grown to include more campus events and reduced waste and increased recovery. Material tracking for this effort kicked in starting in 1999 as we realized that this effort was worth tracking and was starting to recover noticeable amounts of materials.

In 2000-2001, waste recovery at events took a huge turn that resulted in: coverage of more campus events; increased efforts in waste recovery through event assessment, meeting with organizers, waste reduction implementation prior to event and sign and station development; introduction of a new collection of compostables including vendor and public food waste and compostable paper ware. This effort greatly reduced the waste generated at these events (see attached).

The move to a compostables recovery resulted from a partnership with a forest products company that is working hard on moving this to the next level of community food and compostables recovery that will hopefully be implemented for other large events. In order for us to develop this, we took numerous samples of different types of foodware and buried them in compost piles to determine biodegradability. This helped us identify what materials we could compost from these events. As a result we offered food vendor discounts on these items to encourage compatible procurement for these events.

In 2001-2002, through the work of recycling program students, the effort was escalated. The "zero waste" effort of recovering recyclables and compostables began to be included for indoor events (such as the Sustainable Business Symposium) and augmented especially at the bi-annual street fairs. As noted in attached documentation, the fall street fair (2001) recovered 42% of the waste while the 2002 Spring Street Fair reduced garbage dumpsters from four to one, 2 yarder. Due to the events waste management program, we recovered 82% of the waste.

For 2001-2002, the program went to the next level and included this information in the food vendor contracts while we worked hard to identify the appropriate paper (compostable) food ware for the vendors to purchase for the events which included a discount for purchasing these items.

In Fall 2001, a student took all of this further by securing funding from the student government for $8000 to purchase 4000 reusable (nice ones!) plastic plates and 3500 metal forks to be used for the 2002 Willamette Valley Folk Festival, a free campus event that brings up to 15,000 for the weekend. After a year of extensive planning, the student organized the first reusable plate project at a large event in the United States. With 85 dedicated volunteers, enthusiastic food vendors and folk festival staff, Campus Recycling created a mechanism for washing dishes while still recycling and composting as much as possible. The sites were staffed to educate the public and assist in proper sorting of material at the stations. The use of reusable plates/forks, reduced the overall waste generated by 22%, with recycling/compostables reducing the overall waste generated by 67% and the waste sent to the landfill was reduced by an additional 70% since the year 2000. All materials were weighed and tallied.

All of these efforts are having an impressive effect on events locally and state wide. As a result other large festivals are re-assessing waste management and are adding recycling and compostables into many events. Additionally, people have been contacting us regularly to learn more about how they can integrate reusables into festivals. Not only have we shown this is possible, we have demonstrated that there are notable benefits to this undertaking.

INNOVATION/MEETING NEEDS
Waste generated at campus events has a large impact on the waste stream. The Events Waste Reduction Program at campus events, is cutting edge and serves a model for college campuses, festivals, athletic events, community activities and beyond. The reusable plate project is an innovative practice that has never been done in the United States and immediately eliminated 22% of the waste stream before the large event.

Another innovative aspect of the recycling/compostables and reusable plate efforts at the University of Oregon, has been the use of student and community volunteers. At the street fairs, 40 volunteers were recruited, while at the Folk Festival 85 volunteers assisted in the effort. Fliers were placed all over campus and throughout the Eugene community. Email networking provided another mechanism for recruiting volunteers. The reality is that there was such a good response to this that volunteers had to be turned away. This innovative practice provided a strong educational component while serving the need to eliminate contamination in the recyclables/compostables waste stream while creating opportunities for people to participate.

Volunteers were given a "clean plate crew" t-shirt (everyone wanted one so we got even more requests to volunteer!) at the Folk Festival plus food vouchers that the vendors agreed to provide to volunteers. Food vouchers were laminated on recycled paper and volunteers truly appreciated these rewards. The volunteers were enthusiastic about participating in a cutting edge waste reduction project that they supported and felt like they were contributing. One of the volunteers said he saw a poster at a dog park and thought it sounded like something fun to be involved in.

Additionally, as you can see in the attached photos, the program was thorough in creating innovative mechanisms for educating the public, collecting recyclables/compostables and capturing the dirty plates/forks. Besides creative collection areas, there was a volunteer site monitor at each location. They educated the public on proper sorting and answered questions about the program. At the Folk Festival, we had an educational booth that was highly visible. People actually were so enthusiastic, they offered monetary donations!

After a few years of trial and error, we created innovative signs for all aspects of the events, separate vendor recycling sites and a mechanism for collection of compostables at food booths (see attached signs). We designed special collection stantions to identify event waste recovery stations, modified plastic garbage cans and creative picture/word signs for compostables collection and identification of toters for dirty plate collections. For the reusable plate project, we organized a system utilizing toters to exchange for dirty plate toters, and borrowed shopping carts from a local grocery store, to deliver clean plates to the vendors. Signs were made from corrugated plastic which were visually aesthetic and durable.

Another trick we learned was that we covered ALL permanent garbage cans with black plastic bags and signs that said: please utilize waste recovery stations for your disposal needs....This really helped keep the waste in the areas that were staffed. We also reduced the waste collection areas. Until 2000, the Folk Festival had 28 garbage cans located around the event. We reduced that to 6 waste recovery stations including a vendor site.

Clean plates were put in baggits, located at each booth that the volunteers restocked with clean plates, while forks were automatically placed in the front of booths in fork dispensers. We borrowed shopping carts from a local grocery store to transport clean plates to food vendors.

Both the recyclables/compostables effort with the added reusable plate effort, was highly efficient as the program has evolved to creatively overcome challenges through innovative techniques that meets the needs reducing contamination, educating the public, involving volunteers while maximizing waste reduction and recovery.

Of note: the Folk Festival is the only large event where it has been possible to consider utilizing the reusables. We utilized the student union dishwasher which was only available after 2PM on Friday. The Folk Festival is located at the back of the student union next to the dishwashing area. The street fairs are held during the week when the dishroom is in full operation, thus making it impossible for us to consider utilizing the reusables system for that event.

The plates/forks are being used year round for other on-campus uses as to maximize this program. Currently, we are in negotiation with a student union food vendor to utilize a portion of the reusables on a daily basis to eliminate their disposable food ware. Additionally, student groups and smaller in-door conferences have started renting the plates for small events. We charge $25 fee plus replacement costs on lost items. We work with all campus conferences on planning at these events to utilize food service china as a first choice with the reusables as a second option and compostables last. This is another aspect of meeting a need and being innovative.

DOCUMENTED EFFECT ON RECYCLING AND WASTE MANAGEMENT HIERARCHY

Attached you will find documentation of waste reduction and recovery from the events waste reduction project at the University of Oregon from 1999, when we started documenting this effort. The effort actually started as a pilot in 1996. This summary is for the main events highlighted during 2001-2002 that demonstrate where we have evolved to successful waste recovery and use of efficient systems after trouble-shooting over the years. In the attachments, there is documentation from 1999-2002. All materials are weighed and tallied. Garbage numbers come directly from the hauler bill.

*Of note, in 1988, the UO BANNED use of styrofoam products in all food service locations. Eliminating this toxin was inherent in these events.

The 2001-2002 street fairs and 2002 Folk Festival recovery rates were as follows(at the Folk Festival the reusables were added that eliminated waste):

Collected materials:
Public sites:
bottles/cans
low grade paper (newspapers, paperboard, office type paper..brochures etc...)
compostables (pre and post consumer food waste, paper plates, napkins, chop sticks, skewers, wax cups, wax paper)

Food Vendor sites:
metals (cans, aluminum trays, jar lids...)
glass (jars)
plastic (bottles, tubs and jars)
paper (paperboard, wrapping, newspapers, other low grade paper)
cardboard
compostables (same as above)

2002 Willamette Valley Folk Festival Reusable Plate Project:
22% waste eliminated from use of reusables
67% recovery of recyclables/compostables
70% reduction of overall waste generation since 2000

2002 Spring Street Fair
82% waste recovery of recyclables/compostables

2001 Fall Street Fair
37% waste recovery of recyclables/compostables
(we took a serious look at this and boosted/improved efforts for Spring Fair which more then doubles recovery rate!)

In regards to the 3^rd part of this question, as this project evolved, we explored the idea of requiring vendors to use biodegradable products. We realized these were an extra expense that the vendors were not willing to make. Plus, we had many concerns about these products such as: shelf life, expense!!, availability and most importantly "transferrability" of process when special items had to be used.

As a result, we decided that since the UO already bans the use of styrofoam and paper being already biodegradable and making up the majority of the compostable food ware waste generation, that we would work with vendors to get them a discount at the food products wholesaler. This encourages use of the items that would be compatible with our compostables process. We took numerous samples from the wholesaler and did extensive research on compostability through burying items in the compost pile. We ultimately chose items made from reduced amounts of materials (such as enviroware tree-free plates) and from post consumer waste as much as possible (we offered discounts on post-consumer napkins). The vendors were supportive and we had limited problems with non-compliance. See attached vendor flier on discounts, tree-free and post consumer recycled food ware products for food vendor purchases.

SHAREABILITY/RELIABILITY
This program has served as a model for the local community (and beyond it seems from feedback we are getting from folks around the country). Campus Recycling developed these efforts through support from the City of Eugene, Lane County Waste Management and Rexius Forest Products. We all worked together to trouble-shoot systems and create the ability to compost food ware materials. Together we did experiments to determine biodegradability of food ware which allowed us to identify the food ware that we wanted vendors to purchase. All of us have been interested in working towards zero waste events and essentially we have all been evolving together and serving as a model, sharing resources and consulting each other.

As a result, large local events are implementing these reduced waste events. The City and County are implementing the recycling/compostables waste reduced events practices at: Lane County Fair, Art in the Vineyard, Eugene Celebration and Cuthbert Amphitheatre Shows. The Oregon Country Fair has been observing us and are very interested in the success of the reusable plate project at the Folk Festival, which has led them to implement an on-site compostables project at that event for this year which will draw over 45,000 participants. They are looking at ways to implement part of the reusables project for future Country Fairs.

From our growing efforts at the Folk Festival and street fair, a concert promoter has taken on impressive recycling efforts at a few large Oregon concerts, starting with bottles/cans, paper and cardboard. And to make it even better, the promoter recruited Campus Recycling student recyclers to coordinate these efforts, which has provided jobs for several students who have been involved in-depth in these efforts at the UO. They are following in our footsteps and coming up with creative mechanisms to reduce concert waste such as providing all camping festival attendees with a recycling flier and separate plastic bags for recycling and trash collection. They have developed educational systems to talk to each group of people checking in for camping at these festivals while happily giving them their waste reduction kits!The reduced waste events project that Campus Recycling has developed, has already been used at larger non-campus operations and is transferrable to many different areas. As a result of this growing effort, the University is already planning a pilot project to compost all campus paper towels and compostables from the increasing waste generated in the student union and other campus food service areas such as cafeterias and catering. This is the next step at the University of Oregon. From this evolving effort, Campus Recycling has demonstrated that composting and reusables are not only viable at large events but can be integrated into practice to take waste reduction into the new millenium...pre-cycling, compostables collection and reusables.

As noted, the plates are in the process of being rented to an on-campus food vendor while smaller campus events have already taken the opportunity to rent these. The Architecture and Math Departments have rented these already while the new green building College of Business is planning a Zero Waste reception as a result of seeing what is possible through our model efforts.

PROGRAM ECONOMICS
Through the use of volunteer staff, currently no cost for composting and use of efficient systems, Campus Recycling has been able to keep down costs for waste management at events. It is hard to determine exact costs for the program labor to manage the recyclables/compostables. Besides reducing waste sent to the landfill, the program has had another less obvious effect of leaving the grounds clean, which usually creates a MESS! This saves money in overall clean-up costs.

For the upcoming year we are proposing a vendor environmental fee of $100 that the vendors get back when they check out from the festival. If their area is a mess, no deposit. Likewise if there is a problem with compliance with appropriate foodware and waste recovery, the booths will not receive their deposit back. The vendors are generally accepting of this.

There have been start-up costs for collection systems and signs. It is difficult to estimate this as it has been a long term evolution and the equipment has been purchased over time. It is used regularly for all campus events.
We have purchased:
30 rectangular rubbermaid containers
10 wooden stantions
10 round plastic containers for compost
10 roll cart toters for food waste collection
Plastic signs for stations and compostables collection
5 gallon buckets for food vendor compostables
Biodegradable bags...we need to buy these as we run out!For the Reusables projects:

We received a grant for $8000 for 4,000 plates (3 sizes), 3,500 forks and volunteer t-shirts.

Due to the fact that events recycling is built into our coordinator costs, there isn't any additional costs to do this as it is part of the program costs that are funded by the students. Extra recycler costs beyond the coordinators, are ~$250 for the street fair and ~$750-$1000 for the Folk festival. The major costs have been in equipment, program development and paid student labor at these events.

For the Folk Festival, the cost of garbage has been reduced by $150 since 2000. (This is unbelievable because it's a 70% reduction in materials sent to the landfill....garbage is still too cheap!) Though I can't quantify this, we eliminated any costs for garbage collectors during the event and also greatly reduced the cost of grounds crew/facilities to deliver/collect 28-55 gallon drums for garbage, plus the grounds were clean, thus eliminating that cost. For the 2002 Spring Street Fair, due to waste reduction: ~$500 (this figure does include the reduction in Facilities labor for clean-up and garbage collection during the street fair).

EDUCATION/OUTREACH
Education and outreach have been built into Events Waste Reduction Program as follows (and in attached photos):
-well maintained, aesthetically pleasing waste recovery sites
-simple, easy to read signs on all containers including picture signs
-program staff with recycling program t-shirts
-volunteers staffing all stations to ensure proper disposal and contamination elimination
-easy to read guidelines for all food vendors
-one on one daily contact with food vendors, meetings with planners
-press releasesAdditionally, at the Folk Festival and as possible at other events:
-staffed Campus Recycling information booth for volunteer check-in and other related environmental information/press coverage
-special Clean Plate Crew t-shirts worn by 85 volunteers plus staff

A sample of these items are attached. Our policy is that people can copy any of the materials we have created. Actually, it would be great to get our materials out there to create some continuity with other events. Already we have shared our mountain recycling logo that has been used by other colleges and non-profits for their programs.

LEADERSHIP/CUTTING EDGE
The UO Campus Recycling Events Waste Reduction Program is a model program that is being observed and pursued by other entities such as the City of Eugene, Lane County, Oregon Country Fair, other large music festivals and beyond. We were one of the first places that we know of, to do such an aggressive effort, including compostables (utilizing regular paper items and not fancy expensive Biocorps/Earthshell). The recycling/compostables program is being replicated as a result and the reusable plate project is the first of its kind in the United States. The Vancouver Folk Festival (Canada) is the only other event that we know of, that actually charges a plate/cup deposit with admission. We are in the process of creating a manual on this that we will post on our website. The Events Program also is being utilized to teach/train students, who are the future environmental/recycling leaders. The Program is founded on creating leadership positions for students. Over 700 students have been involved with Campus Recycling and have made great strides in environmental jobs. Students have left the program to hold positions such as: Recycling Education Coordinator for Bend Recycling Team, Lane County Waste Management Specialist, Construction Demolition Manager for City of Portland, Peace Corps Volunteers, Doing events recycling at festivals, Program Manager for World Wildlife Fund in Nepal, just to mention a few.

Students are taking this project and integrating it in areas outside the campus community.

Campus Recycling has worked hard to create strong leadership through programs such as the events recycling project. This project follows suit with other campus recycling leadership projects such as an extensive website (http://www.uoregon.edu/~recycle/main.htm) that has received over 11,500 visits in the last year and a half, and a reusable office supply program that is modelled nationwide at campuses, non-profits, government offices and businesses.