Compost

Visiting the Ann Arbor WeCare Compost Site

I recently had the opportunity to tag along with Nicole Berg, a program manager with the Office of Campus Sustainability (OCS), on one of her routine compost site contamination checks. During this check, we were able to visit the WeCare compost site where all of the compost from the university (and the city of Ann Arbor!) is disposed. To be … Read More

At Home Waste Audit: A Simple Waste Reduction Opportunity

According to the most recent data from the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States disposes of 267.8 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) annually – that’s a lot of waste! That waste is made up of a variety of different types of materials, which you can see in the chart below. Paper and paperboard make up 25%, plastics 13.2%, … Read More

Reducing Waste from To-Go Meals

use a reusable bag

Due to COVID-19, MDining has had to adapt their operations for public safety and serve meals to-go. This has been a huge change given that they serve approximately 95,000 meals in a single week. They have done a great job ensuring that as much of the packaging as possible is compostable. But understandably, even with compostable packaging, this method of … Read More

Custodial Staff Damon Woodard and Shannon Taylor

Woodard and Taylor

The Samuel T. Dana Building, home to the School for Environment and Sustainability, is one of the first academic buildings on campus to have compost bins for daily use. Last month, we interviewed two people that are instrumental to the success of the Dana Building composting program: Custodial Staff Damon Woodard and Shannon Taylor.   Both Damon and Shannon have worked for U-M … Read More

PBA Spotlight: Paul Dunlop and Zero Waste at the Big House

Paul Dunlop

It’s time for football and the U-M team kicked off its season with many new starting players, new maize uniforms, and renewed optimism that we will beat our arch rivals. One big change fans may notice is the Michigan Stadium Zero Waste Initiative.  Paul Dunlop, the Senior Facilities Manager for Michigan Stadium, leads the Zero Waste Stadium efforts. The Zero … Read More