The results are in from Facilities Operations and Development’s (FOD) two-phase waste characterization study on waste and recycling generated on Ohio State’s main campus.
Baseline data was collected in fall 2021 as part of phase one and multiple waste program enhancements were made to improve how materials were being managed on campus, including:
Ready, set, recycle! The Lantern featured Facilities Operations and Development (FOD) in an article on the university competing in The Campus Race to Zero Waste. The competition aims to encourage students, faculty and staff to recycle more, recycle right and compost.
"If the faculty, staff and students were to put recyclables in the correct bin, Ohio State could increase its landfill diversion rate by 27 percent this year," Molly Kathleen, zero waste coordinator for Facilities Operations and Development, told The Lantern.
Campus Race to Zero Waste has officially started! For the next eight weeks, Ohio State will be competing against other universities across the country to determine who has the highest landfill diversion rate! Students, faculty and staff are asked to participate by recycling more, recycling right and composting.
With more than 17,000 trees on the Columbus campus, green space and the overall tree canopy are important aspects of Ohio State’s landscape architecture. Facilities Operations and Development Landscape Services regularly plants trees to support sustainability and campus beautification. When a tree must be removed, multiple replacement trees often pop up as a result. Watch how FOD crews are rooted in sustainability and growing the next generation of campus shade.
The Ohio State University is excited to announce that it is a 2022 National Recycling Coalition Award (NRC) recipient! The annual awards program is designed to honor and recognize outstanding individuals, programs and organizations around the country, both for their sustainability-related achievements and to serve as a model and a resource for learning for NRC members.
The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center is celebrating after announcing that it has been named a 2022 Climate Champion by Health Care Without Harm. Read the full article below.
The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center is pleased to announce that we have been named a 2022 Climate Champion by Health Care Without Harm.
It’s dirty, stinky, often disgusting work. But everyone doing it knows how vital it is.
“It’s walking and walking, feet hurtin’, perseverin’, digging into bags of half-eaten food, the worst stuff in the world, but it’s essential we do it,” says Maya Hammond, a Zero Waste intern who spends her home football games sorting the waste at Ohio Stadium.
On Saturday, October 8, student volunteers joined Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) staff to clean and maintain the Jennings Hall rain gardens. Volunteers, including the Texnikoi Engineering Honorary and the Ecological Engineering Society, weeded, trimmed perennials and mulched 22 garden boxes during the annual fall event, which has taken place since 2013.
The expansion of the university composting program was recently spotlighted by Ohio State News. “Ohio State is leading the region on this,” said FOD’s Mary Leciejewski. More than 1,000 Buckeyes have signed up to participate in a new program that has already diverted more than 114 tons of food waste from landfills since July and sparked new ideas from students in the classroom.
A new collaboration between Ohio State and Rumpke Waste and Recycling will support advances in circular economy research, teaching and practices at a time when population growth in central Ohio is expected to bring new challenges to managing waste.