CBA Green Team Minutes
Monday, November 5th, 2012
3:00pm, Mammel Hall Suite 200
Attendees: Jean Waters, Dave Nielsen, Edward Johnson, Rick Yoder, Bryce Miller, Michael O’Hara,
Ashley Taylor, Megan Reiners, Sola Ajala
Action items:
 Remove trash and recycling containers in classrooms; leave them in break-out rooms (214A, B,
C, and 318 and 318A)
 Make map of where trash and recycling containers are supposed to be located in the public
space (so they’re right next to each other – they get moved after events)
 Jean & Megan propose new labels on recycling bins to educate people on what can be recycled
 Sola to communicate with administrative personnel about recycling ink cartridges via campus
mail
 Ashley and Rick propose language about recycling and waste prevention for inclusion in catering
contract
 Jean email John Amend about rain sprinkler controller and hand dryers
Waste Sort: Ways to Improve on Recycling Issue
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Mostly food and water found in classroom waste. We need to find a way to get rid of food and
liquid waste being put in the wrong bins.
We can have 3 containers: waste, refuse and compost containers for liquids and foods
We will begin working on Edward’s idea of getting rid of the waste baskets in the rooms and
putting them in the hallways: but we have/keep trash cans in breakout rooms.
Edward will take bins out of all classrooms but leave the ones in computer labs, break rooms,
etc. We aren't buying new containers just reorganizing current ones to move them out of the
classrooms
Have trash and recycle bins right next to each other
Create a map for custodians so they always know where the trash cans go in the case of
displacements
Better signage on recyclable materials on bins. Look at what they have on the main campus.
Edward will email a visual. We can make magnetic stickers for the top of the metal bins
Jean organized a committee for recycle stickers to decide on the graphics to put on the bins,
using Edwards’s suggestion as a reference: Jean and Megan
Selling faculty:
We want a better outcome than the recycling pledge. Faculty wasn't pleased with pledge.
Pam Peterson wants to work with the faculty to increase energy savings.
She might be able to come to our next meeting
CBA Waste Generation:
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We are still experiencing a wide disparity between recycled and waste materials. We need to
know the number of events and people at each event in each month. This will help us
understand the disparity. Dave can give us a list of events. Ashley said Noelle from catering is
willing to put information on theirs as well.
GBASIS:
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The team had the Auden Schendler event they volunteered for in Lincoln. They helped with
parking, room setups, and took pictures of different speakers; students from Lincoln where also
in attendance.
Homecoming week: They plan on pushing their new t-shirts ($20 each) throughout the event.
They will partake in upcoming events with their new t-shirts
The sprinklers at CBA keep running even during heavy rainfall. Megan did research on ways to
fix this. A rain sensor (gauge) helps by shutting of the system when an inch of rain accumulates.
It's not an in ground sensor. Talk to John about acquiring/implementing this for the campus. We
can send an email to John Amend to ask for his consideration on this and cc Lou Pol.
Ashley mentioned that the recycling bins at the library are confusing. Edward said they are
looking into that
Green UNO task force:
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They announced that UNO is seeking environmental (NET) funds. Trying to figure out community
gardens on north campus
Center for urban sustainability on board of regents October agenda was passed. B.J Reed is
contact person
UNO sustainability task force:
Rick and Chris Decker are working on how we can form a sustainability certificate for the
campus moving forward. Need to know how this will connect with urban sustainability project.
We can share our ideas with UNMC so that we can have a consensus.
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Other items discussed:
Using the hand dryers versus paper. Brice attended a conference in Lincoln were he heard of the
financial payback a business received from installing high-air flow hand dryers. We need to look
into this for CBA
Rick: Reed Brodersen is president of sustain UNL reed.brodersen@gmail.com
Next Meeting: December 3rd at 3:00pm
Agenda for next Meeting: Dec 3rd
Meeting on sales project with Dr Peterson
Waste Sort – October 5th, 2012
In order to better understand the amount of recyclable materials improperly tossed into the trash
and the amount of trash improperly tossed into the recycling, at the September Green Team
meeting it was proposed to conduct a waste sort.
This event took place at Mammel Hall, on October 5th. The participants were Jean Waters, Suela
Cela, Nishtha Rajbhadari, Brice Miller, Ashley Taylor, and Brady Churchill. The trash sort
underlined the common mistakes of CBA, when it comes to throwing trash in the appropriate
bins.
The source of the waste sorted came from the following:
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Classrooms: 2 solid waste bags and 2 recycle
Offices: 2 solid waste bags and 2 recycle bags
Location
Recycling
Classrooms
Office
Total
24.2 lbs
55.95 lbs
80.15 lbs
Trash in the
recycling
2.3 lbs (10%)
1.3 lbs (2%)
3.3 lbs (4%)
Trash
12.65 lbs
12.4 lbs
25.05 lbs
Recycling in the
trash
2.7 lbs (21%)
3.35 lbs (3%)
6.05 lbs (24%)
Classroom Waste contained 10% recyclable materials. Class room recycling contained 21%
waste materials.
Classroom:
trash
recycling
recycling in
trash
Offices:
contaminant
s in recycling
trash
recycling
in trash
recycling
contaminan
ts in
recycling
76% of the total waste analyzed was separated as recycling (70% office; 30%
classroom) but if separated better, 79% would have been recycled.
24% of the total waste analyzed was separated as trash (50% classroom; 50% office) but with
better separation, it would have been 21%.
The participants observed common contamination.
 Food waste was a big contaminant in the recycling stream
 Plastic bottles which still contained liquids were in the recycling stream
 Plastic lids from drink cups, especially coffee, plus coffee cardboard hand protectors
were not recycled
The following ideas were proposed:
 Better signage of the products that can be recycled.
 More education on recycling
 Include liquid/food containers if an outlet can be found for reuse, as well as bigger waste
and recycling bins
Signage suggestions included
 Simply put the items that cannot be recycled on the top of the bins (no plastic films/bags,
food, Styrofoam, or glass)
 Put quick-reference items on the top of the bins with detailed signage on the sides of the
bins
A previous Green Team suggestion to remove bins from the classroom was seen as favorable. It
would consolidate all trash into the bins in the public areas and reduce workload for the
custodians.