TEMPE, Ariz. — With the hustle and bustle of over 80,000 students, workers, and faculty at Arizona State University — one of the nation’s largest universities — making it through one day without waste is nearly impossible.
In June 2013, the sustainability office at ASU partnered with Waste Management Inc., America’s leading provider of landfills and recycling facilities, and issued a proposal to transform ASU into a zero waste campus by 2015. ASU’s Sustainability Operations Officer, Ray T. Jensen defines zero waste as a, “90 percent reduction in waste to area landfills from our current business-as-usual status.” For a community of 85,000 people, this means creating less than 800 tons of waste per year.
The zero waste initiative is part of a strategic plan set forth by the office of sustainability practices at ASU. The plan also calls for climate neutrality, zero water waste, and principal practices like green housing and offices, and active engagement by 60 percent of campus users.
Nick Brown, director of university sustainability practices at ASU, said there are many challenges the university will face in carrying out the initiative. The first challenge begins with educating community members about aversion (avoiding using wasteful products in the first place) and diversion (preventing university waste through recycling, composting, and re-purposing).
“A big chunk of what we throw away everyday is single use items: food service and drink containers, tissues and paper towels,” he said. “I would appeal to the campus community to re-think single use items because it adds to the waste stream.”
The school launched the first two day zero waste event at the Clinton Global Initiatives conference on ASU’s Tempe campus in April 2014. Corey Hawkey, an expert in sustainability operations and manager of the zero waste initiative, said 99 percent of waste was diverted on the first day of the