Recycling, Compost & Waste

By Mishu Pham-Whipple

For the second year in a row, University of Washington's Seattle campus came in first among its Pac-12 competitors in overall waste reduction during RecycleMania, a national collegiate waste diversion tournament. With an overall reduction rate of 55%, the University ranked number 25 on a list of 207 competing institutions.

Kathryn Jansen is the UW Department of Surgery's medical student program operations specialist. After noticing that the department didn't have compost and recycling bins readily available, Jansen made it a priority to add several to the department's break and conference rooms.

"We produce a ton of coffee grounds and filters, along with other food waste, while trying to keep our staff and residents caffeinated all day and night," said Jansen. "I would see the garbage bin overflowing with items that could be composted."

By Mishu Pham-Whipple

What do wheelchairs and sustainability have in common?

The Tobacco Action Group (TAG), UW American Lung Association (ALA), and Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED) are hosting Huskies Kick Butts, a campus-wide cigarette butt cleanup that will raise awareness of the tobacco industry's impact on climate change and the need for UW to adopt a tobacco-free campus policy.

Update 4/18: The Salvage Wood Program was named one of the seven 2016 Husky Green Award winners.

The Salvage Wood Program at the University of Washington is working to make sure any trees which need to be removed on campus can have a second life.

The program, run by Grounds Management and made possible by a Campus Sustainability Fund grant and help from the UW chapter of Engineers Without Borders, turns those removed trees into lumber for projects on campus such as benches and tables.

Beginning February 8, the University of Washington will be competing for the fourth year in RecycleMania - a friendly tournament where national college campuses compete during the course of eight weeks to see which can reduce, reuse and recycle the most on-campus waste. The UW will take on nationwide universities including Pac-12 rivals Arizona State University, Stanford, University of California Berkeley, University of Oregon and Washington State University.

This Fall, UW Tacoma's Carbon Challenge presented a talk by zero-waste advocate Lauren Singer showcasing how people can live a zero-waste lifestyle. The event was one part of the Carbon Challenge, a Green Seed Fund project to encourage students, faculty and staff to take steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

The UW's ENVIR 480: Sustainability Studio class in the Program on the Environment presents students with a sustainability topic which they engage in as part of an experiential learning course. The topics change each quarter - this spring, the students researched the UW's environmental history. This is part of a series of posts by the students on some of the information they uncovered.