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WasteZero® at College |
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With populations of young and seemingly motivated and environmentally conscious individuals, college and university campuses are, in some ways, the perfect places for WasteZero Trash Metering.
Trash Metering can be an attractive waste management policy on campus not only because of its remarkable environmental benefits and the significant savings in waste disposal costs it delivers, but also because it increases student awareness and involvement in recycling and waste reduction, and emphasizes responsibility and accountability, making waste management the responsibility of those who create waste.
Studies have shown that colleges and universities are small cities that consume large amounts of resources and generate a significant amount of solid waste. Experience has shown that all schools have the potential to reduce the amount of resources they consume and dispose of. WasteZero Trash Metering can provide a tool for campus recycling coordinators, student organizations, and facility service professionals to engage their campus community in recycling and waste reduction.
WasteZero consultants will work with college officials, recycling coordinators, and campus waste management directors to develop a Trash Metering program that's a perfect fit. And then we make sure the program succeeds. Working with campus officials, WasteZero will develop site-specific educational materials - information packets, public service announcements, campus newpaper inserts, videos - and programs to inform and educate students, faculty and staff about Trash Metering.
More and more U.S. universities and colleges are looking for ways to ramp up their waste diversion in order to ratchet down both their costs and ecological footprints. WasteZero Trash Metering can deliver those results.
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About Trash Metering |
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| Trash Metering systems, also known as pay-as-you-throw, user pay, unit-based pricing, and SMART (Save Money and Reduce Trash), charge households a rate based on how much waste they present for collection. Variations of this simple concept - akin to paying a water or electricity bill - have been embraced by about 7,100 municipalities in the United States, and have led to the diversion of some 6.5 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) per year that would otherwise have been landfilled or incinerated. Trash Metering programs are available to about 25% of the US population and about 26% of communities in the US - including 30% of the largest cities in the US. |
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Environmental Impact |
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| In more than 300 communities nationwide, the WasteZero System has dramatically impacted residential waste diversion. A 2008 analysis of all WasteZero communities found that the WasteZero System decreased residential MSW by an average 43 percent in weight. A recent study by the US EPA of all Trash Metering municipalities shows that about one-third of diverted waste is diverted directly to recycling, about one-third is diverted to composting, and one-third is "source reduced" (buying in bulk, reduced packaging, etc.). |
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