Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 65.09
Liaison Shane Stennes
Submission Date Jan. 11, 2023

STARS v2.2

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.86 / 8.00 Carley Rice
Sustainability Coordinator
Facilities Management
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Parts 1 and 2. Waste per person

Figures needed to determine total waste generated (and diverted):
Performance Year Baseline Year
Materials recycled 1,390.34 Tons 2,176.40 Tons
Materials composted 1,176.10 Tons 362.80 Tons
Materials donated or re-sold 312.84 Tons 152.30 Tons
Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion 0 Tons 0 Tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator 3,712.90 Tons 6,501.40 Tons
Total waste generated 6,592.18 Tons 9,192.90 Tons

If reporting post-recycling residual conversion, provide:

A brief description of the residual conversion facility:
After sorting out compostable, recyclable, and reusable materials, the remaining waste is sent to the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) where garbage is burned to create energy.

Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
Start Date End Date
Performance Period July 1, 2019 June 30, 2020
Baseline Period Jan. 1, 2008 Dec. 31, 2008

If end date of the baseline year/period is 2004 or earlier, provide:

A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:
NA

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:
Performance Year Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site 7,518 6,555
Number of employees resident on-site 18 15
Number of other individuals resident on-site 3 4
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment 47,039 44,934
Full-time equivalent of employees 17,531 17,954
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education 398 0
Weighted campus users 50,016 48,812.50

Total waste generated per weighted campus user:
Performance Year Baseline Year
Total waste generated per weighted campus user 0.13 Tons 0.19 Tons

Percentage reduction in total waste generated per weighted campus user from baseline:
30.02

Part 3. Waste diverted from the landfill or incinerator

Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator by recycling, composting, donating or re-selling, performance year:
43.68

Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator (including up to 10 percent attributable to post-recycling residual conversion):
43.68

In the waste figures reported above, has the institution recycled, composted, donated and/or re-sold the following materials?:
Yes or No
Paper, plastics, glass, metals, and other recyclable containers Yes
Food Yes
Cooking oil Yes
Plant materials Yes
Animal bedding Yes
White goods (i.e. appliances) No
Electronics Yes
Laboratory equipment Yes
Furniture Yes
Residence hall move-in/move-out waste Yes
Scrap metal Yes
Pallets Yes
Tires Yes
Other (please specify below) Yes

A brief description of other materials the institution has recycled, composted, donated and/or re-sold:
Have a robust ReUse Program that takes any non-hazardous unwanted materials and attempts to reuse, sell, donate, recycle or otherwise divert these materials from the waste stream.

Optional Fields 

Active Recovery and Reuse

Materials intended for disposal but subsequently recovered and reused on campus, performance year:
43.62 Tons

Recycling Management 

Does the institution use single stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:
Yes

Does the institution use dual stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:
Yes

Does the institution use multi-stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:
Yes

Contamination and Discard Rates 

Average contamination rate for the institution’s recycling program:
10

A brief description of any recycling quality control mechanisms employed:
Education, general signage, specialty signage, contaminate-specific signage, visual inspection, waste audits, and fully operational MRF.

Programs and Initiatives 

A brief description of the institution's waste-related behavior change initiatives:
Ever evolving and expanding programs dedicated to continually diverting recoverable materials. (Example: Sustainability Advocates program)

A brief description of the institution's waste audits and other initiatives to assess its materials management efforts and identify areas for improvement:
Visual inspections, routine single stream audits, full building week-long complete MSW waste audits.

A brief description of the institution's procurement policies designed to prevent waste:
On-going partnership with procurement via quarterly meetings.

A brief description of the institution's surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:
25,000 sq ft facility that accepts any unwanted non-hazardous materials for diversion by reuse on campus, sales to the public, auction, donation, refurbishment, or processing to recover metals and resins before disposal.

A brief description of the institution's platforms to encourage peer-to-peer exchange and reuse:
We encourage the use of the ReUse Program for this.

A brief description of the institution's limits on paper and ink consumption:
---

A brief description of the institution's initiatives to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:
---

A brief description of the institution's program to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:
The robust program called Pack & Give Back supports HRL and WRS that collects unwanted student-owned materials and redistributes them to incoming students and or sells them to the general public.

A brief description of the institution's programs or initiatives to recover and reuse other materials intended for disposal:
ReUse Program

Website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization and diversion efforts is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.