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CSULB
recycling program expands
By Heather Clarke
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
On Jan. 1, 2000 California Assembly
Bill 75, came into effect requiring all state facilities to
cut waste flow to landfills 50 percent by 2004.
The bill does not involve fines at this point but that can
be changed if facilities do not accomplish what is required
of them, said Jon Root, manager of integrated waste management
of Facilities Management at Cal State Long Beach.
“We have to make that good faith effort,” Root said.
CSULB must report to the California Integrated Waste Management
Board annually on the amounts of waste the school creates
in different categories such as paper and landscape debris.
The school must explain in these reports what it is doing
to meet the new demands of the bill.
The university has been practicing the three Rs of waste management:
reduce, reuse and recycle. Root said that since he began his
job in Nov. 2001, 13 trash bins out of 39 on campus have been
removed. This has reduced university spending by $21,000,
he said.
Paper recycling containers are now in all offices. They are
not available in classrooms yet because so many students are
coming in and out of rooms, Root said. It is not as easy to
be clear about the amount of waste created or if it is being
properly discarded.
Source reduction is part of the program to cut back waste
said Root. An example of source reduction at the university
is the practice of grass cycling. Grass clippings are left
after the lawn is mowed rather than thrown away so they do
not contribute to the amount of waste the university sends
to the landfill.
The field house, located near the discus field, will be expanded
so landscaping debris, such as branches, can be processed
and chipped on-campus with equipment the university currently
owns.
Root said this will save the university the cost of having
it processed off-campus, which cost CSULB $3,500 during the
first five months of 2002. Root said he estimates that at
least 50 percent more material can be chipped and used onsite,
which would save the school about $8,400 per year.
Figures for how much the school may spend or save are only
an estimate because each month the cost of dealing with left
over materials varies from factors such as construction and
weather.
“To be honest the only way you know is until you get in there
and start doing it,” Root said.
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