Colorado State University
OP-23: Waste Diversion

CSU has had an institutional commitment to recycling for decades, with programs such as Cardboard Corral where residence hall students can recycle their cardboard moving boxes on move in day (in 2014, 21 tons were recycled in 5 days) and participation in Recyclemania.

Colorado State donates thousands of pounds a year of food from the dining centers to the Larimer County Food Bank. In 2012, More than 65,375 pounds of food was donated by the Dining Centers and Pingree Park Mountain Campus donated just Over 900 pounds. Non-perishable food donations are also collected from students as part of the Leave It Behind program at the end of the academic year.

Pre-consumer food waste is collected at the dining centers and the bake shop. Housing & Dining Services in 2011 invested in a state of the art, fully-automated composting system called the Earth Flow. This enclosed, 30‐yard capacity compost bin is located on the CSU Foothills Campus (three miles west of main campus). Pre-consumer and post-consumer food waste from CSU Dining Centers is composted in the Earth Flow. The Earth Flow accepts up to 2,000 pounds of material per day. Organic waste is loaded into one end of the vessel by placing the collection container on an automated tipper. Every time food waste is added, bulking material like straw, wood chips, and horse manure from the equine center is added at a 1:2 ratio. Material is composted for about four to six weeks inside the vessel. Finished compost is discharged through an end door of the vessel. The compost is piled on site to cure for at least 3-4 weeks before being used in landscaping projects on campus such as Braiden Hall and The Durrell Center renovations. Over 30 yards of compost were used on these projects as a soil amendment. In 2013, the CSU Earth Flow Composter diverted over 300,000 pounds of food waste from the landfill. In the first half of 2014, CSU composted over 100,000 pounds of material.

Pulpers installed at Ram’s Horn, Braiden, And Durrell dining center mix all of the food and paper waste with water, and then grind up the material. This slurry is then taken by pipe to a centrifuge, which removes excess water and recycles it through the system. The pulped organic waste is emptied into collection containers outside the building. This pulped material is perfect for composting because it is already broken down into small pieces. The pulpers have helped reduce the waste stream in the dining halls by up to 70% and reduced water use by 80%.

Surplus property captures a broad variety of materials leaving campus & diverts them by redistributing, reselling, recycling & repurposing. While they do not have a scale at their facility, the weights of the items were generated from a detailed list of all the items processed in FY14.