In the natural world, waste by-products decompose and are recycled into food for another life. The concept of "waste is food" is a concept that our society has moved away from as we continue to generate materials that do not readily break down. At Bowdoin the materials we "throw away" end up at the Town of Brunswick's Graham Road Landfill.
Our goal is to follow the motto "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Buy Recycled" with waste reduction as the top priority. The College has also developed a comprehensive recycling plan and begun a composting program for pre-consumer food scraps from the dining halls.
Sustainable Bowdoin conducts a waste audit each November as part of Maine Recycles Week. It provides an excellent opportunity to examine our waste and target waste prevention opportunities as well as raise awarness. In the fall of 2007 16.5% of material (by wieght) in the sorted bags of trash could have been recycled, a decrease from previous years. Every year the biggest offender ending up in the trash are the recyclable bottles and cans, often with liquid still in them which adds to the weight. Strategies the College has taken to reduce waste include:
The College has developed a new office products procurement strategy that accesses the Internet, resulting in the reduction of numerous heavy paper catalogs being sent to each department as well as a drastic reduction in paper invoices sent to our accounting department.
Bowdoin Housekeeping staff has recently switched to using rags for cleaning rather than paper towells, saving 20 thousand rolls of paper towells per year.
Bowdoin has seen a significant reduction in campus paper mailings in the past several years, reducing paper waste by thousands of sheets per year. Many of these paper mailings are now posted to the web with e-mails notifying the community of their presence.
The Bowdoin Mail Center continues ongoing efforts aimed at reducing junk mail for faculty, staff and students, while Bowdoin Dining Services and Facilities Managment have piloted a program to reduce unwanted mailings from nearly 500 companies.
To further reduce paper waste the campus community is always encouraged to photocopy and print double sided at all public printing and coping facilities on campus.
Bowdoin Dining Service encourages all students to bring their own mug to the dining hall for take out beverages instead of using disposable paper products. To reinforce this message Dining Service gives all first year students their own travel mug during Orientation and discounts at their cash opertions for people who bring their own mug.
Bowdoin office equipment and furniture are continually recycled through the Facilities Management warehouse to different departments. When useful items are no longer wanted, the College sells or donates the goods to individuals and organizations in the local community.
Bowdoin also works with local non-profits to organize an annual end of the year move out program now known as Give & Go where students can donate unwanted items that they don't want to take home - or can't fit in the car! Students donate everything from rugs and lamps to pots and plants, which are collected and organized into a yard sale so the items can be reused again. In the first 7 years of organizing this sale, over $150 has been raised for local non-profit organizations. Items leftover from the sale are matched with interested non-profits, with a small fraction being sent to the landfill.
Some items that the college gives away for student use are also collected during the move-out collection program. Television Cables, Ethernet cords, and crutches are collected and given back by the college to be re-used the following year. As an example, over 200 TV cables were returned to AV the first year of the program, and at a cost of $2.50 each, the college saved $500.
The Bowdoin Copy Center encourages people to use the back sides of already been used paper for drafts, or to send the paper to the copy center to be made into "green pads".
Bowdoin runs a "single stream" recycling programBowdoin Dining Service has started 'recycling' its food waste and unbleached paper napkins into compost using the "Earth Tub" — a large compost vessel purchased by Facilities Management.
The Bowdoin Grounds Department recycles all their leaves and grass clippings into compost by using yard waste composting piles as well as by leaving the grass clippings on the lawn to provide a fine layer of mulch.
Bowdoin Grounds Department also recycles all scrap metal on campus by taking it to a local scrap metal yard.
There are recycling facilities in every building on campus for Mixed Paper, #2 plastic, Cardboard and Returnable Bottles and Cans. A new recycling program was developed for Residential Life's 124 campus apartments last year, which recycled 4,335 lbs of recyclables during the academic year.
In addition to our regular recycling program Bowdoin also recycles many oddball items from small batteries to entire buildings! Facilities Management has incorporated recycling programs into all of our current renovation and construction projects, recycling stone, wood, and metals and achieving a 90% or higher recycle rate on all their projects.
The percent of recycled paper purchased campus wide from Bowdoin's office supply vendor has climbed over the last year from 65% up to 74%! In addition, over the last fiscal year the Bowdoin Copy Center has increased the amount of recycled paper they buy for their white commodity paper from 85 percent to 96 percent!
