Housing Facilities Operations & Services
Recycling and Energy Conservation Initiatives
REDUCE! RE-USE! RECYCLE!
Jump to:
- Mission Statement
- Residential Recycling through Single Stream
- Single Stream Recyclable Items
- Benefits of Recycling
- RecycleMania
- Special Services
- Move-Out Programs
- Greener Living at UMD
- Green Navigator Program
- Residential Intiatives
- Things That Make You Go Hhhmmm...
- Contact Information
Mission Statement
The Housing Facilities Operations & Services Office at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is dedicated to the reduction of waste materials and promotion towards a greener campus living environment and to the inspiration of recycling materials that would better the future of our students, while creating and educating an environmentally friendly conscious housing experience through the cooperation of the student body.
Residential Recycling through Single Stream
Single stream is recycling made simple - everything going into one bin. No sorting necessary, so it's easier and more convenient for everyone to recycle. With single stream, the value of recycling goes a long way for everyone. Single Stream technology also increases group participation.
The Single Stream recycling program began in the Fall of 2007 as a pilot program in 4 Residential Halls and all Departments and Offices within the residential halls. With the success of the Pilot program, the recycling initiative was implemented in all 14 Residential Halls in the Fall of 2008. Every student room is provided with a blue recycling bag at the time of Move- In. (The bag is considered part of the room inventory and should be left in the room at year's end.) Recycling guidelines are printed on the bag. Students can use the bag to keep recycled materials separated from trash. Students are asked to deliver their recyclables to the designated area outside of the building. The Maintenance Specialist from the HFOS office will pickup the outside bins on a daily basis. All Departments and Offices in the residential halls are serviced weekly. If an additional pick-up is required, call x6000.
Single Stream Recyclable Items
- Clean cardboard
- Office and computer paper (white, colored and stapled)
- Shredded paper (must be in a clear plastic bag)
- Magazine catalogs
- Phone books
- Newspapers
- Junk mail
- Envelopes (manila and windowed accepted)
- File folders
- Three ring binders
- Post-It notes
- Card stock
- Aluminum cans
- Tin cans
- Glass bottles
- Plastic #1 bottles (water and soda)
- Plastic #2 bottles (milk and detergent)
- Plastic bottles up to #7
Please do not put food or greasy pizza boxes into the recycling bins. Use the regular trash bins for these items.
Benefits of Recycling
In the Fall of 2007, the HFOS office collected over 8 tons of recycled material from the Residential Halls that participated in the pilot program. In the same time period in 2008, over 35 tons of recyclables were collected with the implementation of the single stream recycling program into all 14 buildings.
Other benefits include:
- Saving energy
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
- Reduces emissions of air and water pollutants
- Conserves natural resources
RecycleMania
RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. It is a 10 week program that begins in January to increase recycling and reduce waste. Each week schools report recycling and trash data which are then ranked according to who collects the largest amount per capita. Schools can participate in different categories; recyclables per capita, largest amount of total recyclables, least amount of trash and highest recycling rate. UMD Housing participated for the first time in 2009 and were able to see the amounts of recyclables collected dramatically increase.
http://www.recyclemaniacs.org/viewresult
Special Services
The UMD Housing Recycling Program is proud to partner with CRT Recycling Inc., a class A recycler, for all electronic waste and appliance recycling. CRT Recycling is authorized to accept and recycle all computers and parts, as well as many old electronic devices. They will take the following items for recycling: computer hard drives, monitors, keyboards, mouse, wires, TVs, printers, fax machines, typewriters, phones, fridges, air conditioners, microwaves, stoves and most Freon or non-Freon appliances. The goal is to reduce the amount of solid waste that reaches the State contractor for disposal.
Student Move-Out Program
Don't Dump Your Stuff! Donate It Instead.
At the close of the school year, UMD students are asked to donate unwanted stuff to minimize the amount of waste sent to the landfill. The materials collected goes directly to local non-profit organizations. Last year, the program collected almost 2 tons-- or 4,000 pounds-- of clothing, food, toiletries and household items. Look for more information in the Resident Halls in May.
Greener Living at UMD
These tips are intended to demonstrate how students can live sustainably on campus, reducing personal impact on the environment and contributing to UMD's efforts.
- Save energy by turning off your lights, TV's and stereos when you leave a room
- Take shorter showers
- Turn the water off while brushing your teeth, shaving or washing up
- Do larger loads of laundry with cold water and less detergent
- Buy a drying rack, uses less energy and clothes last longer
- Turn off your computer or put it in sleep mode when not in use
- Reduce pollution by walking, biking, car pooling or using the Dart Van
- Use a reusable mug for coffee or other drinks
- Bring reusable bags or a backpack to the store instead of using plastic bags
- Attend the Farmer's Market (Friday's in the Fall)
- When eating at Res, only take what you will eat
- Do all editing on screen before printing
- Double side your paper or print multiple pages per sheet when printing
- Buy products in bulk to avoid excess packaging
- Keep your windows closed in the winter months when the heat is on
- Buy items that can be re-used rather than thrown away
Green Navigator Program
In January of 2009, the HFOS office and the Office of Sustainability implemented the Green Navigator Program. A Green Navigator is student sustainability leader who helps educate their peers about environmental issues. Green Navigators encourage student to live in a more eco-friendly way. They help distribute information through answering questions, dorm outreach, tabling, hanging flyers and event planning.
Training sessions are held bi-weekly and are mandatory for Green Navigators. At each meeting coordinators will introduce a new topic, plan activities, and brainstorm actions that will be taken in the resident halls and on campus over the following two weeks. The training sessions are intended to help students succeed as a peer educator and leader. Student are expected to commit to a regular weekly schedule.
If you are interested in becoming a Green Navigator, applications and more information are available here or contact Robin Brow, HFOS office x6000 or Tom Paine, Office of Sustainability x6484. Students may use Work Study (if eligible), Connections Program (fee waiver program) or volunteer. Qualified students must be motivated, committed to enhancing sustainability at UMass Dartmouth and interested in supporting community participation in sustainability initiatives on campus.
Greener Residential Initiatives Completed
- The 4 Traditional Resident Halls have switched from a 2.2 gpm water aerator to a 0.5 gpm water aerator. Based on a standard of 8.1 minutes used per day per person and on 400 users per building, this would save over 1600 gallons of water per day. When this is multiplied by the 4 Resident Halls, the University would save 6,480 gallons of water daily, 194,400 gallons of water monthly and 2.3 million gallons of water yearly.
- The HFOS office has completed the replacement of the exit signs with LED lighting within the four traditional halls. This has an estimated savings of over $9,300 per year over the life expectancy of the fixture is 15 years for a total savings, $140K.
- Energy efficient lighting of compact fluorescent lights will be completed in the Summer of 2009 in the 4 Traditional Halls.
Future Initiatives
- Green Roofs
- Sensor and Timer Lights in common area, hallways and laundry rooms
- Solar Powered LED Lighting for the crosswalks on Ring Road
- Purchase of first electric vehicle for Maintenance
Things that make you go hhhhmmm...
- Recycling one ton of paper saves the equivalent of 17 trees, saves enough energy to power an average home for six months, saves 7,000 gallons of water, and keeps 60 pounds of pollutants out of the air.
- Every glass bottle recycled saves enough energy to light a 100 watt bulb for four hours.
- America throws away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam coffee cups every year.
- Letting your faucet run for five minutes uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours.
- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.
- In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his/her adult weight in garbage. If you add it up, this means that a 150-lb. adult will leave a legacy of 90,000 lbs of trash for his/her children.
- On average we use each plastic bag for approximately 12 -20 minutes before disposing.
Contact Information
For more information on this program please email HFOSrecycling@umassd.edu.
To schedule a special pick up service please call HFOS Recycling @ X6000.
