What is
Sustainability?

Program
Deliverables

How Can I
Help?

The Arboretum at
Penn State Behrend

GOALS: Waste

Indicator 3: Begin a funded program that explores how "closed-loop" initiatives can be developed on campus and in the local community

The short-term objectives for achieving this vision are:

• Reduce paper use across campus.
• Increase the percentage of paper that we recycle.
• Identify options regarding cardboard usage and waste.
• Reconsider implementing paper charges for student in computer labs.
• Identify and implement alternatives to paper announcements and flyers sent to individual staff members.
• Address and evaluate the possibility of using more recycled paper in offices and computer labs.
  

Long-term objects are:

• Reduce amount of waste disposed.
• Compost paper waste.

Many of these objectives can only be achieved with the education of the Behrend community.

Some of the education issues are:

• Get students to buy into using less paper.
• Explore disincentives for creating waste.
• Educate students about trash in public areas of campus (using proper receptacles, etc.).
• Re-educate about alternatives to paper copies and paper drafts.
• Educate offices about duplex printing.
• Behrend’s engineering programs can also be involved in waste reduction by designing closed-loop systems (where all materials used in manufacturing are used somewhere else), instead of the many current linear systems in place now.
• Outreach programs can also help by fostering connections between businesses that can provide “food” for each other.