Two University programs were honored Wednesday for their 2001-02 recycling efforts in Lane County’s 10th annual Trashbuster Awards, a local event that coincides with the nationally recognized America Recycles Day.
Of five Trashbuster Awards this year, two were presented to University programs. Campus Recycling and the Environmental Service Learning Program both received awards for their outstanding efforts in reducing waste during the past school year.
“We wanted to see an award system for people doing a good job at recycling and reducing waste,” Lane County waste reduction specialist Pete Chism said of the program.
Campus Recycling received the Special Event Trashbuster Award for its efforts at the 2002 Willamette Valley Folk Festival, which recovered 82 percent of the event’s waste. This was done by converting the event’s usual 28 garbage cans to seven stations where recycling and composting took place before items were considered trash.
“There’s only a certain percentage you can recycle,” Campus Recycling Program Manager Karyn Kaplan said. “So (composting) is opening the doors for a whole new generation of waste management.”
Most large events generate huge amounts of waste, Kaplan said. But before the festival even started, Campus Recycling was able to cut down on 22 percent of the normally generated waste because it bought reusable plates.
The Environmental Service Learning Program was awarded the Student Trashbuster Award for its efforts in tracking edible food flow and for its collection of televisions and computer monitors — an event that accumulated 19 tons of material that would have otherwise gone to landfills.
The program’s television and monitor recycling event began with students advertising through radio, hanging signs and giving oral presentations to local schools.
The project, which reached more than 1,100 Lane County citizens through oral presentations alone, prevented 3.2 tons of lead from reaching landfills.
“We wanted to educate people about the hazards of television dumping and provide a valuable alternative,” ESLP Coordinator Steve Mital said.
The program, which is intended to give students experience while serving community needs, takes on three yearlong projects each year.
While tracking edible food flow from 20 grocery stores, five restaurants and two produce houses, the program worked to educate businesses about Food for Lane County.
“Our donations increased just from the study,” FFLC Assistant Director Jessica Chanay said.
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