When & Where

Acceptable shoes include:

Why is this a thing?

What happens to them?

Watch the promo video: 

UMBC now offers collection and recycling of all clean plastic bags, films, and wraps! These items can be placed into one of the 35 yellow bins located throughout campus. The bins will be placed on campus over the next two to three weeks. 

These plastics require a special process for recycling and cannot be recycled in single stream recycling (blue bins).

To view a full list of items that can be recycled in the yellow bins visit the Plastic Bags & Films Recycling Page on Sustainability Matters. 

Locate a plastic film collection bin near you!

"How" Plastic Film Recycling - Sustainability - Long from UMBC commonvision / inet on Vimeo.

We are excited to announce a new paid opportunity for a student dedicated to helping protect the environment by reducing waste and raising awareness on Reycling!

Help to engage the campus and raise awarness on issues such as how to sort waste, how to reduce waste, ways to reuse, why recycling is important, gaining commitments through pledges, and what happens to our waste at UMBC.

The primary role of this position is to facilitate UMBC's participation in Recyclemania in 2014. Recyclemania is fully funding this position.

Sustainability Outreach and Communications Intern:

Intern will report to the Recycling Manager in Facilities Management. The position will be 4 hours per week. Hours may vary to accommodate meetings, and events. Additional tasks may be assigned. Intern must demonstrate evidence of interest and background in sustainability and must feel comfortable reaching out to professionals, peers, and faculty. Intern must be a current UMBC student. The internship will last from February 1^st to March 30^th during Recyclemania. Upon completion, the student will recieve a $250 stipend for the 8 week period, working at least 4 hours per week.

The will assist in promoting recycling on campus through design, online marketing, and events. During the period of Recyclemania the student will:

-Plan and promote events such as a parade, luncheon, and other outreach activities

-Set up and manage a weekly table on mainstreet

-Recruit, develop, and coordinate volunteers and partners

-Collect pledges, and take and post photographs

-Utilize the Recyclemania materials such as ‘event in box’

-Update press releases and blog posts

-Small amount of data entry to report weekly numbers to the Recyclemania website

-Post and manage engaging content on social media

Desired skills and qualifications:

- Experience or interest in learning about planning and coordinating events

- Strong writing and communication skills
- Strong organizational and time management skills
- Ability to work independently and in a team
- Creativity and design skills
- Related coursework in related area such as Environmental Studies, Communications and Design desired but not required
- Awareness of environmental issues
- Involvement in campus sustainability

-Enthusiastic, outgoing, and positive

Examples of Tasks and Responsibilities:

Events:

- Event planning and logistics

- Tabling, coordinating sign-up sheets, pledges, and photo booths

Writing:

- Assist with writing press releases, articles and event summaries

- Assist with conducting interviews and creating articles

Design:

- Assist with posters, designs and fliers

Social Media:

- Assist with updates to myUMBC and Facebook Events Calendar

- Assist with creating and posting of spotlights

- Posting photos and updates following events

- Expand followers on myUMBC and social media

Photography:

- Assist with taking photographs, editing, organizing and uploading content

To Apply:

Please submit a resume and a cover letter to recycle@umbc.edu

In your cover letter please include the following: 

1) why this position interests you

2) what related skills and experiences you possess

3) any other groups, activities, jobs or time commitments you are currently juggling and how you plan to manage your time

Deadline: January 30^th

As you returned or arrived to campus in the fall, you may have seen the new waste bins (including compost!) in the Commons. In case you were wondering, here's how they came to be, and how you can use them! Help us spread the word by sharing this post with your networks: http://sustainability.umbc.edu/waste

Check out this illustrated guide from OCSS for sorting recycling, composting and waste (printable PDF)

UMBC's new bins have 3 or 4 slots:

1. Paper
2. Landfill
3. Compostable (Commons & UC only)
4. Glass, Cans, Plastic

The labels are available as stickers as well, to show and explain how waste should be sorted. The new bins are located in the Commons, and at lecture halls, and will be phased in across campus as a new indoor standard. Outdoor recycling bins (the black, metal, circular bins) accept all recyclables: paper, glass, cans and plastic.

Above: President Freeman Hrabowski demonstrating new 3 hole bins.

Compost

Learn about compostable packaging: 

What can we compost?

• All Food Waste
• Soiled Paper Products (such as used napkins, pizza boxes, etc. If you notice a plastic or wax coating, toss into the landfill slot for general trash)
• Plant-based Packaging (just check the labels and images below)

• True Grits Dining Hall (all food waste is composted in the kitchen, including food on used dishes)
• The Commons (labeled green slots in waste bins)
  
• University Center (ground floor by dining options)

Why Compost?

Composting allows food to decompose naturally into valuable fertile soil. Otherwise, food waste decomposing in a landfill without oxygen would create methane, a problematic greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Learn more at epa.gov!

History: Collaboration and Coordination

We were able to start composting our food waste in 2012 thanks to the efforts of SGA Sustainability Intern Madeline Hall (featured in the composting video below), and a coordinating committee including student leaders, our dining provider Chartwells, contract coordinators Campus Card, our green housekeeping group, and the company who picks up our compost and returns the decomposed food as fertile soil, Waste Neutral, as well as Facilities Management and UMBC's Sustainability Coordinator!

Composting has been phased into food services since 2012, starting with the Dining hall, then the Commons- to allow time to collaboratively select, purchase, and install new user friendly bins, to become a standard across campus.

Awareness: Events, Promotions and Education

Our student partners such as Students for Environmental Awareness, SGA Department of Environmental Affairs and SGA Sustainability interns have taken the lead in the 2012-2013 school year and designed educational outreach programs to raise awareness on why and how to compost on campus since composting was first introduced on campus!

We are excited to work with anyone interested in helping spread the word! Just email sustainability@umbc.edu to get involved!

Check out the student video about composting in the dining hall: http://youtu.be/Jlf80VmIvpQ

Some popular past published updates on composting:

• Taking time to compost in The Commons, by Zoe Gensheimer; An article from the Retriever Weekly describing composting!
• Check out the inside scoop: News on composting & recycling! Stay up to date on how you can pitch in!
• SUSTAINABLE FOOD AT UMBC! Chartwells has been doing tons of great things to go "green!

Zero Waste Events

Consider plant-based compostable dishware and flatware rather than plastic or Styrofoam for your next campus event with food and be sure to request a portable compost bin and pick up service through events services!  The new SGA Green Paws fund allows student organizations to acquire plant based compostable materials at no additional cost.

Do you have any questions or ideas about composting on campus?

Everyone has heard mutterings of a new composting system on UMBC campus this semester, but some people are still unsure about the facts. What can you compost and where? What are the benefits of composting and why should I bother?

Composting is a system of decomposing or breaking down biodegradable materials such as lawn clippings, leaves or unwanted food to produce rich, nutritious soil that can be used for growing plants.
This process helps to stem the large streams of waste that go into landfills and reduces the need for fertilizers and pesticides. Compost also can be bought and sold, transforming what would once be "trash" into a commodity that can help to stimulate the economy.

So how is this system of composting working at UMBC? At this point, composting is already effective in the True Grits dining hall. When you put your dirty dishes with your uneaten food on that conveyor belt, it is later scraped into bins by the staff and sent a composting facility in Delaware, eventually becoming soil.

This semester, composting has been extended to The Commons, but this system is a little more complicated because it is up to the student, staff or visitor at UMBC to separate your "waste" into the correct containers.

In The Commons, all food scraps can be composted from any of the locations. You can also compost the new Pepsi cups (made from corn), and Fresh Fusions and Wild Greens have switched to compostable food containers and eating utensils. Large salad containers and parfait cups from Outtakes should also be placed in the compost bin.

So where are the compost bins in The Commons? Unfortunately, as of right now, there is only one compost bin the Commons. It is located to the right of the "Dream Machine" by the doors to The Commons near the breezeway.

At this point, it is just a regular trash can with a sign that says "Compost," but facilities management is working on ordering a set of new bins with separate containers for the various types of waste.
These new bins will be divided into three different sections: compost (food scraps and specified containers from Fresh Fushions, Wild Greens, and Outtakes), recycling (bottles and paper products) and landfill (trash, everything that doesn't belong in the aforementioned containers.)

We will also have new recycling bins in other parts of the campus. UMBC's academic buildings are switching from a "single-stream" recycling system to a "dual-stream" system. Instead of putting all recyclables in one bin, this new system will divide recycling items into two separate parts, one for paper and one for glass, plastic, and cans. This will be helpful in allowing UMBC to gain profit from selling cardboard and other materials instead of simply paying for waste to be brought off campus.

For now though, stick to using the single compost bin by the back doors of The Commons near the breezeway. Every time that you make the effort to walk over to the compost bin with that last bit of your uneaten Salsaritas burrito or to double back to The Commons after class to compost your Pepsi cup, you're helping to recreate and rebuild the circular systems of nature that work so well.