Not only do math teachers love numbers and fractions, apparently they enjoy tea as well.
The Department of Mathematics at the University of Oregon hosts a weekly tea and coffee party.
“Mathematicians have what’s called a ‘tea’, and it’s three or four days a week, and it’s just for them to get together and talk about research and throw around ideas and stuff,” said Jay Butler, the undergraduate coordinator for the math department.
In recent meetings, the mathematicians thought up a way to create a greener economy, too.
Butler said he “kept noticing (that) we recycle everything pretty well,” but “coffee grounds and the tea kept on going in the garbage.”
Butler reached out to Kayrin Kaplan, the manager of the Zero Waste Program on campus, to solve the issue.
The Zero Waste program on campus aims to provide waste disposal services and waste management education to the university.
The mathematicians decided to begin using a compost bin during tea parties to salvage waste. This method provoked several professors to request a personal bin for their offices, and began an implementation of the Zero Waste Program in Deady and Fenton halls. Both halls host several math courses at the university.
Fenton hall recently saw a $5.6 million remodel, completed in June 2011.
One improvement since the remodel is that Deady and Fenton halls have been retrofitted with new Zero Waste stations and desksides to replace original metal trash bins.
The desksides are miniature trash bins which can be placed on a desk and have separate compartments for different types of waste. The new bins allow for the sorting of waste, in order to prevent food from being mixed in with non-reusable materials.
The group has developed what they call the Zero Waste Campus ToolKit, which is a manual on how to convert a school to produce a limited amount of waste. The guide describes its waste disposal system in detail and the five bin system it uses for garbage.
The five bins are used for compost (food), white paper, mixed paper (newspaper, magazines, etc.), bottles made up of plastic, glass, and metal.
“We have designed a zero waste system that is part of all of the campus construction standards,” Kaplan said. “So as buildings are remodeled and are newly constructed, the zero waste system will become the standard.”
The program was founded in 1991 out of the survival center by students. Originally working to reuse and recycle paper, the group has expanded to other materials such as metal, plastic and compost.
In 2010 the group received first place in the PROP Film Festival and second place in the EPA Video competition for its video titled: Stop Global Warming.
The program plans on expanding into other buildings until the entire campus produces minimal amounts of waste. Its goal is to have a long term plan for the implementation of the program drafted by June 2015.
“I would like to make a long range plan to expand the zero waste system in to all campus waste related efforts,” said Kaplan.