Residential Waste Analysis and Achieving Understanding of Waste Management Infrastructure for Improving Sustainability at a University

Abstract

The manner in which municipal solid waste is discarded and how individuals are educated about waste disposal are factors in determining overall sustainability. It is important to study waste disposal in a campus setting because campuses are locations with concentrated populations that function as models of society and provide educational settings for students to gain new information and transform habits. At the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), a team of students conducted waste audits in UMBC’s residential area to determine how much of the waste was really trash and how much could have been recycled. In this paper, “trash” will refer to landfill waste and “waste” will refer to everything that is disposed of no matter the category. By measuring samples extracted from dumpsters using a digital scale, it was determined that only 42 percent of this campus’ residential waste stream was trash. The other 58 percent was separated into these categories: compostable (30 percent), plastics, metals, and glass (17 percent), paper (6 percent), and cardboard (5 percent). The fact that most of the waste could have been recycled or composted suggests the need for a composting program and adjustment of students’ education and attitudes about recycling. This study found potential for improvement in waste disposal practices on the UMBC campus. It presents students, faculty, and staff with information regarding the composition and structure of UMBC’s residential waste stream so that educational programs for students and waste disposal infrastructure may be improved.