This past Wednesday, the Environmental Club and Ozone House performed a trash audit to break down exactly how much waste-- including recycling and compost-- is wrongly sent to the landfill every day. The audit is meant to raise awareness on the amount of waste produced across campus and allows for potential improvement on the distribution of future waste.
Student volunteers removed trash bags from the following buildings: Ferro House, Humanities, Edward, Smith, Davidson, Lippman, Science & Engineering, Reamer, Webster, South College, Wells, Olin, West College, North College, Breazzano, Beuth, Schaffer Library, Golub House, and Ozone House.
The trash was first weighed, then combined and finally sorted into eight different waste categories: compost, plastics, metal, paper + cardboard, plastic bags, glass, landfill ("true trash") and liquids.
While only about 40% of the trash collected was "true trash," about 25% of the trash was actually compostable, and approximately the remaining 35% were recyclables.
The data on trash weight and distribution from Wednesday's audit can be found in the charts above and below.
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| Credit: Annie Nelson |
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| Credit: Annie Nelson |
Posted by Sophie Cowley '17
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