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RecycleMania:How Hard Can This

Be?

Penn Joins RecycleMania

Old Hand at Penn, New to Recycling

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Penn is a BIG Place!

23,743 Students

4,822 Faculty

15,671 Staff

13,463 Health System

???? Visitors

Lots of people creating waste!

180+ buildings on 270 acres

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Getting in..

• Feb 2007– Our Dining Marketing

Manager• Lets try this

RecycleMania in our Dining Halls!

– Then she left….

– But it got me thinking…

• Why not?

• After all,

How hard can this be?

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Gather Friends and Allies

• Tried the idea out on close colleagues

• Gathered key players– Housing– College Houses– Facilities

• Invited people to join effort

• They all said yes!

• Team included – Students– House Deans– Housekeeping– Facilities– Housing– Dining– Communications– Marketing

• Goal - Dining and Residences ONLY

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.What we thought

• Penn had a recycling program– Data available

• Focus on students and College Houses

• Start with Basics• Have some fun

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.What we discovered

• Yes, Penn had a recycling program….but

– No champion in recent years– No specific Recycling Manager– Responsibilities split between

Schools/Centers and Facilities– Housekeeping managed by outside

company

• Process Fractured

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.What we discovered

• Data collection at campus level only– No building data– No College House data

• No standard containers• No user instructions• Confusion about what to recycle

• Suspicion about entire process• Facilities folks concerned

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Despite all that…

• Lots of interest at all levels• People wanting to help• Really wanting to recycle• Lots of recycling going on

– Some people taking it home!

• Willingness to tackle this• Student activism pushing University

• People showed up for our meetings!• Begged to join team!

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.What We learned• Each Building is different

– Offices• Housekeeping removes trash

from offices to loading docks– Residences

• Students place waste in trash chutes or floor trash cans or even take to outside containers

• Then– Housekeeping removes waste

from floors to central location in building or outside of building

– Central Facilities waste haulers remove waste from outside buildings to municipal waste site

• Schools and Centers– Manage their buildings– Set policies, procedures

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Where Recycling Goes

– Penn Urban Park staff picks up some waste and recycling

– BFI picks up trash, recycling from the Quad

– Precision Hydraulic moves most cardboard from balers and recycling compactors

– Recycled paper and co-mingled bottles, cans, glass goes to Blue Mountain

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.What We Did

• Created a Brand

• Included Marketing and Communications up front

• Created Buzz– Website

• www.upenn.edu/recyclemania

– Emailrecyclemania@pobox.upenn.edu

– Logo

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.What We Did

• Signage• Events

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What we didTrash Mountain ( uh, Trash Hill??)

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.What we did

Sign Penn’s Recycling Pledge!

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TAKE THE PENN PLEDGE!

I pledge:

To find out what materials I can and cannot recycle in my community.

To lead by example in my residence and in my neighborhood by recycling.

To recycle batteries, cell phones and other electronic waste.

To email my elected officials to ask them to increase funding for my community's recycling programs.

To tell five friends that recycling is the easiest thing they can do to slow global warming

To stop, think, and recycle while I'm at Penn!

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.What we did

Student Murals

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.What we did

Visited Blue Mountain Recycling

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What We Did• Weekly Events

• Garbage Quizzo• Water Challenge• Lectures• Movies

– Into The Wild

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Budgets

• Web development and hosting

• Email account• Signs

• Banners• Hanging Banners

• Trips• Giveaways• Hats for hardworking

teams

• Get vendor support– On and off campus

• Make signs, banners reusable

• People effort• Priceless

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Lessons Learned

• Pay attention to culture– Who reports to who– What are their incentives

• How are they staffed

• Understand– Why do they do what they

do?– Why don’t they do some

things?

• Economics• Incentives

• Or lack of incentives

• Help people come along– Different speeds

– Different concerns

– Needs for information

• Give lots of credit

• Be in it for the long terms changes

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Lessons Learned

• Data matters– Don’t embarrass– Be able to explain

• Competition – Not as important as

we thought

• Schools/Centers– Really interested– Most change there– Potentially huge

impact

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Lessons Learned

• It’s a lot of work!– 10 weeks is a long

time– Lots of programming

ideas needed

• Need to get champions for each area

• Communicate, communicate, communicate– Need better way to

reach schools and centers

• Education, information is critical

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Will we do it again?

• Think so– Hope to have recycling

manager

• Need better way to measure volumes – by College House, – by Schools

• Focus on Waste Minimization• Harder message• But more important

• Begin in Fall– Info to new students

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Our Results

CO-MINGLED (plastic, glass, cans) 48,245 PAPER 387,935

BALED CARDBOARD 142,080 TOTAL RECYCLING 578,260

WASTE 2,551,320 TOTAL RECYCLING + WASTE 3,129,580

Cumulative Results in Pounds, through Week 9

Top of the Ivys in Waste Minimization!We beat Harvard!