Zero Waste

Annual Report | Fiscal Year 2022

ASU succeeds by creating programs and designing models that strengthen institutional sustainability.

Overview

Mission statement

Arizona State University’s Zero Waste department aims to create and implement programs to reach the university’s circular-resources goal and strengthen overall institutional sustainability by designing lasting, universal models that support ASU as a global leader in sustainable solid-waste management.

Introduction

The Zero Waste Annual Report for the Fiscal Year 2022 provides an overview of the solid-waste program at ASU from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022. The sustainability reporting boundaries for the university include the four ASU Phoenix metropolitan campuses: Downtown Phoenix, Polytechnic, Tempe and West. This report also includes ASU at Lake Havasu in the reporting boundaries.

Goals

The Zero Waste department is responsible for managing the outcomes of the circular-resource system goal ASU defines a circular-resource system as achieving zero waste by adapting the goods brought onto campus to maximize their use before returning them to the economy for the most productive use possible.

View the ASU Sustainability goals and vision webpage for a complete list of university goals.

Key commitments:

90% Waste diversion from landfill by 2025.

30% Waste aversion over the Fiscal Year 2008 by 2025.

Collection GIS mapping and labeling

The Zero Waste department collected over 1,000 geographic information system data points for outdoor dual-litter bins, residence hall collection points, specialty collection zones, operational centralization areas and office breakroom kitchenettes. This information will help engage the campus population in new ways that enhance the awareness and accessibility of the university’s sustainability goals and resources.

Compost collection reaches offices

The Zero Waste department expanded the office kitchenette compost program in FY 2022 to university-wide deployment. Of the 395 kitchenettes mapped, 257 were identified as program candidates. More than 80 office leaders completed the Office Compost training and requested 83 bins within the first six months — an initial adoption rate of 3.2%. This has resulted in engaging 57 unique offices to divert an average of 75 pounds per week.

Engagement programs

The Zero Waste department continues to grow engagement programming with interactive activities for internal and external ASU partners throughout the year.

Current engagement programs include:

• Blue Bag sorts — 22 volunteers contributed 44 hours of support over eight events to divert almost 1,500 cubic feet of specialty recycling material.

• Ditch the Dumpster — Residential Hall students donated 29.9 tons back to the community during our annual donation program

• Greeks Trading Post — 129 students engaged in thrifting, generating 358.9 pounds of clothes donations.

• Green Games — ASU received the Rising Star award from the Pac-12 for sustainability and waste efforts during the 2021 football season. ASU achieved an 81.1% diversion rate for the football Green Game.

29.9 tons donated

Highlights

• Reaching across the table — Participated in 43 tabling events and engaged 1,385 people in Zero Waste department messaging and programs.

• Reusables at Starbucks — Partnered with Starbucks and Aramark, the university’s on-campus food service company, through the ASU-Starbucks Center for the Future of People and the Planet to increase reusables use on all campuses. Since the program launched in fall 2021 and through the end of FY 2021, more than 21,146 cups have been saved from landfill.

• Social media — The Zero Waste department had an average 30% growth in total followers across all social media accounts, mainly due to its new TikTok account. Engagement also grew on average by 3.7%, with Instagram making the largest contribution of 7.7%.

• Waste directory — The Zero Waste department launched a new waste directory to help the ASU community quickly find answers to what materials are recyclable and how to dispose of them properly. Since its launch, 861 unique visitors have generated 1,850 searches. The top 10 items searched included small batteries, ink and toner, plastic bag, food scraps, glass, pens and markers, laptop, CD/DVD/VHS, cardboard and vegetables.

Front-load monitoring expansion

The Zero Waste department piloted a dumpster-monitoring system to collect data in FY 2021 resulting in an initial 30% increase in service efficiency. After a full roll out, the impact of the improved data accuracy increased efficiency for costs and service demand by 9.8% for landfill and 19.5% for recycling.

Service requests

The Zero Waste operations teams completed 2,023 requests, greater than pre-pandemic levels.

Sustainability initiatives

The Zero Waste department supported student success and behavior change efforts, focusing on compost adoption, reusability and recycling participation. The completed learning outcomes from the following engagements inform innovative and human-centered program design:

• Food waste and composting study — Leveraging students’ consumption patterns in residential life engagement strategies.

• Single-use plastics assessment — Learns the extent of on-campus single-use plastics and pathways to reduce them.

• Sustainable consumption course — Partners with academic units to activate a “learning laboratory” through a curriculum to develop zero-waste interventions.