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Marist College's 4th Biannual Dumpster Dive!

The results are in from Marist's fourth biannual solid waste stream assessment which was conducted 30 April, 2008. Components of the Marist College solid waste stream were examined for the amounts and types of waste being disposed of to see whether voluntary recycling on campus is actually working.

Random samples of solid waste (i.e. garbage bags) were sampled from Sheahan, Leo, Midrise, Fulton, Foy and Upper West Cedar residence areas, the James Cannavino Library and the Student Center. Waste from a total of 13 bags fulfilled our quality control criteria and provided useable data. The total mass of waste sorted into various categories was 69.5 kg.

Good news! The relative mass of recyclable materials continued to decline in this most recent sampling. Recyclable paper, glass, plastic, metal and corrugated cardboard together made up roughly 25 % of the waste by weight (Fig. 1). In Fall '06, these same recyclables made up a whopping 52 % of all waste. Thus, we've gone from over half the sampled waste being recyclables to only a quarter of the sampled waste being material that should have been recycled.

Compostable organic (i.e., food waste) and non-recyclable food and other product packaging continue to be major waste fractions. Starting in fall '07 we began measuring the mass of non-hazardous liquids - unconsumed water, soda, and other beverages in the waste. Nearly 7% by weight of waste were these wasted beverages. We encourage students to pour unconsumed beverages down the sink, or even outside on the ground, before recycling beverage containers.

Figure 1. Marist College solid waste categorization by mass as determined in four different samplings (F '06 = 14 bags totaling 68 kg, S '07 = 18 bags totaling 67 kg, F '07 = 9 bags totaling 36.5 kg, and S '08 = 13 bags totaling 69.5 kg).

During this most recent Dumpster Dive, 3 bags of waste were collected from each of Sheahan and Leo Halls in order to determine if there was any difference in the type of waste being generated in these two adjacent residential areas. Total masses of waste sampled were similar (16.0 and 21.8 kg from Sheahan and Leo Halls respectively). Leo Hall had less recyclable material (recyclable paper, glass, plastic, metal and corrugated cardboard) improperly disposed of than Sheahan (Fig. 2). Leo residents also appear to be doing a better job of dumping out beverage containers prior to disposal. The largest fraction, by mass, of solid waste in both these residences was food waste (i.e., compostable organics).

Figure 2. Solid waste categorization by mass as determined by sampling 3 bags of waste from both Sheahan and Leo Halls on 30 April, 2008.