David Donaldson, manager of Rethink Waste, is particularly excited about the increase in composting on campus. Since the compost collection program's launch four years ago, the University has diverted nearly 1 million pounds of organic waste, a milestone that is expected to be surpassed by spring break.

Dining Services is actively reinforcing the goal by replacing many single-use products with compostable and reusable alternatives and educational outreach efforts.

“All of the cutlery, straws, and almost all of the cups are compostable,” Donaldson said. “We’re doing everything we can to let people know that instead of cramming everything into the brown paper bag or box their lunch came in, to please stop and sort.” This way, items that can be recycled are not thrown away as garbage.

While campus events tend to be among the largest waste producers on campus, Rethink Waste interventions are helping attendees direct their waste to the correct bin. Last fall, at a Zero Waste Football Game, more than 2,000 pounds of waste was diverted to composting and recycling alternatives — a 30% increase over the previous year.

These game day challenges also present an opportunity to educate the community about how much waste is produced during events and how they can rethink their own actions at home.

“A lot of what we do is about behavior change, and that’s hard,” Donaldson said. “If we just passively throw up a poster, then we’re relying on people to look at the poster, read it, process it, and incorporate it into their lives. But maybe if they knew the difference in methane emissions between organic waste breaking down in a landfill versus composting, they might be more likely to spend 3 seconds sorting their waste.”

Last semester, the Rethink Waste representatives toured van der Linde Recycling outside Charlottesville to witness firsthand how recyclables are sorted and processed and how the company makes new materials, such as mulch and gravel, from recycled materials.

“I was especially interested in the mattress recycling operation,” said Paxton Mills, a junior biochemistry and molecular biology major and Rethink Waste representative. “One worker is able to deconstruct 50 mattresses a day into parts for sorting and further recycling. While labor intensive, the process is critical in keeping mattresses from taking up landfill space since they don’t compress to any appreciable degree.”

Rethink Waste will host two basketball game day challenges in February and an e-waste, shredding, and composting event in April.

A group of students are also spearheading an eco-brick project, where disposable plastic bottles are densely filled with straws, floss, snack bags, candy wrappers, and other hard-to-recycle materials. The bottles will be bound with soil and clay to build a new garden bed.

“They will last quite a while in a helpful way, rather than sitting in a landfill,” said Luke Dema, a senior economics major and Rethink Waste representative.

Richmond will participate in the Campus Race to Zero Waste nationwide competition to minimize and divert waste through recycling and reduction, along with the over 1,000 American and Canadian colleges and universities that have participated since 2001. Donaldson said Richmond regularly places first or second in Virginia, but last year scored a national first-place finish in the Basketball GameDay category.

“Regardless of our numbers, I think we’ve made some great progress toward better understanding our waste, expanding our diversion opportunities, and getting people to think about reuse in ways that haven’t happened before,” Donaldson said. “I’m interested in looking at how we reduce waste overall. That’ll take consideration of how we purchase, what we purchase, what reuse opportunities we can create, and changing the throwaway culture that is ever-present in our society.”