‘In With the New,’ Out With the Old: New Waste Systems at Moody College of Communication

By Gabriella Vukman

Reporting Texas

 

Ahead of Earth Month, the daily habits of students at UT’s Moody College of Communication have been interrupted.

There is an air of change sweeping through the halls of Moody College, and UT’s Resource Recovery is the reason why.

In the name of sustainability and diverting waste from landfills, a new garbage organizing system has been implemented throughout Moody’s three buildings.

Senior Zero Waste Coordinator at Resource Recovery Lindsey Hutchinson said, “We are calling it our zero waste building system, and what we are doing is we are looking at the buildings holistically.”

“It has been a long time in coming. We are partnering with custodial services, so we are looking at opportunities that can both improve waste diversion and custodial service efficiencies,” she said.

“We are excited to implement our pilot across three buildings because then we could get a sense of the scale of impact much better.”

Initiated during the first week of Earth Month, the new waste infrastructure stemmed from a pre-audit of the three Moody buildings.

The audit consisted of physically sorting through Moody’s waste material to see what kinds of waste were present.

After discovering that large amounts of recyclable waste were going into landfills, Resource Recovery cooperated with building custodians and operators to fix the issue.

Hutchinson said, “One of the biggest trends we noticed was that people weren’t accurately disposing of their beverage containers. If people can just sort them, it would make a big difference. Also, getting those aluminum cans, glass bottles and plastic cups into the recycling is a big deal.”

“Having equal access to recycling and more signage that tells you what belongs in which bin is part of installing that better infrastructure.”

“There are specific approaches when you deal with other utilities like energy and water—like measuring efficiency—and that really hasn’t been there with waste. We are trying to get everyone engaged so that they are properly sorting out the waste bins,” Hutchinson said.

There has been a mixed response from students toward Moody’s new waste management system.

“Honestly, I didn’t really see a huge need to get new bins. I feel like the other ones were pretty clear,” UT journalism student Maci Lowery said.

“There may have been other things the college could have spent money on. But I guess it can be a good thing for our college to upgrade on,” she said.

As part of its goal to reduce the amount of garbage being sent to landfills, the Resource Recovery department has also begun hosting a series of zero food waste events.

One such event was a composting program hosted on Saturday, April 5.

The program’s purpose was to divert all the event’s food and compost waste from a landfill, all while educating attending students and alumni on waste disposal.

UT sustainability student and Resource Recovery intern Quinn McGuinness said, “We had people posted around the event to help people know how to dispose of their waste.”

“Coming to Austin, I realized that it was way more accessible here, and I think it is really cool that our campus is implementing that and we have our zero waste events,” McGuinness said.

Currently, UT has met 31% of its goal to reduce food waste by 90%.

While Resource Recovery does not anticipate a reduction in the amount of waste, they hope that sorting is a first step toward a zero waste future.

There is an air of change sweeping through the halls of Moody College, and UT’s Resource Recovery is the reason why.

In the name of sustainability and diverting waste from landfills, a new garbage organizing system has been implemented throughout Moody’s three buildings.

Headed by UT’s Resource Recovery department, new bins equipped with signage instructing which items are to be placed in the recycling and landfill bins have been placed around the Moody Center. Gabriella Vukman/Reporting Texas

Senior Zero Waste Coordinator at Resource Recovery Lindsey Hutchinson said, “We are calling it our zero waste building system, and what we are doing is we are looking at the buildings holistically.”

“It has been a long time in coming. We are partnering with custodial services, so we are looking at opportunities that can both improve waste diversion and custodial service efficiencies,” she said.

“We are excited to implement our pilot across three buildings because then we could get a sense of the scale of impact much better.”

Initiated during the first week of Earth Month, the new waste infrastructure stemmed from a pre-audit of the three Moody buildings.

The audit consisted of physically sorting through Moody’s waste material to see what kinds of waste were present.

After discovering that large amounts of recyclable waste were going into landfills, Resource Recovery cooperated with building custodians and operators to fix the issue.

Hutchinson said, “One of the biggest trends we noticed was that people weren’t accurately disposing of their beverage containers. If people can just sort them, it would make a big difference. Also, getting those aluminum cans, glass bottles and plastic cups into the recycling is a big deal.”

“Having equal access to recycling and more signage that tells you what belongs in which bin is part of installing that better infrastructure.”

“There are specific approaches when you deal with other utilities like energy and water—like measuring efficiency—and that really hasn’t been there with waste. We are trying to get everyone engaged so that they are properly sorting out the waste bins,” Hutchinson said.

There has been a mixed response from students toward Moody’s new waste management system.

“Honestly, I didn’t really see a huge need to get new bins. I feel like the other ones were pretty clear,” UT journalism student Maci Lowery said.

“There may have been other things the college could have spent money on. But I guess it can be a good thing for our college to upgrade on,” she said.

As part of its goal to reduce the amount of garbage being sent to landfills, the Resource Recovery department has also begun hosting a series of zero food waste events.

One such event was a composting program hosted on Saturday, April 5.

The program’s purpose was to divert all the event’s food and compost waste from a landfill, all while educating attending students and alumni on waste disposal.

UT sustainability student and Resource Recovery intern Quinn McGuinness said, “We had people posted around the event to help people know how to dispose of their waste.”

“Coming to Austin, I realized that it was way more accessible here, and I think it is really cool that our campus is implementing that and we have our zero waste events,” McGuinness said.

Currently, UT has met 31% of its goal to reduce food waste by 90%.

While Resource Recovery does not anticipate a reduction in the amount of waste, they hope that sorting is a first step toward a zero waste future.