For the past two months, a PODS container has been located on the northeast side of campus at the corner of Stinson and Boney Drive. Students might be surprised to know that university officials did not put it there, though their permission was given before it arrived.
The POD is the responsibility of an environmentally minded student group, the United States Green Building Council. The group was formed in the fall semester of 2010 and consists mainly of students from the College of Design and a notable number of engineering students.
Over the months of December and January, the group collected scraps and waste materials created by the design studios’ various projects. They acquired 10 blue recycling bins from the University’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Department and distributed them throughout the studios. Once filled, the bins were unloaded into the container, referred to as the POD.
The POD is a Green POD made of 100 percent recyclable materials and 15-30 percent postconsumer recycled plastic. The POD was donated from PODS Inc. and will be returned Feb. 28. In two months, USGBC collected enough materials to fill the 1024 cubic feet PODS container.
Once the group had collected all the materials, they decided to host an event called, “The Great Sort,” and established an on-campus scrap exchange.
Tia Simpson, a junior in electrical engineering and co-president of USGBC, said the event was aimed at bringing awareness to the waste produced in design studios.
“With the Great Sort, we’re trying to show people just how much waste is produced when we build models, and comparing it to the amount produced when constructing a building,” Simpson said. “In the process, we’re diverting materials that would normally end up in a landfill.”
Simpson also mentioned some long-term goals of the organization.
“The ultimate goal,” Simpson said, “is to establish a permanent scrap exchange on campus. We are working with the University to find a place to house the scraps.”
Tuesday, Feb. 15, the group unloaded the contents of the POD into the tiered brick area beside Kamphoefner Hall known as The Pit. Group members and volunteers piled and sorted materials for five hours and received free pizza, cookies and Global Village “free coffee” coupons in exchange for their hard work.
Materials were sorted into four different categories: reusable, recyclable, construction waste and landfill waste. Reusable materials included cardboard, chipboard, metal, wood, Plexiglas, foam-core board and anything that was useful for future studio projects, or could be used to start a scrap exchange. The recyclable pile consisted of cardboard, chipboard and other paper products.
A WRR representative estimated the results. Of the nearly 1024 cubic feet of material, 80 percent was recyclable paper products, ten percent was reusable products to go towards the scrap exchange, and five percent was construction waste, wood products, metal and concrete too small or damaged to be reused. Five percent was landfill waste.
According to Nessa Stone, operations manager of WRR, the recyclables were put in a roll-car container provided by WRR and sent to Sonoco, the recycling company to which the University sends its recycling. The weight of the diverted waste will be calculated by WRR and posted on the USGBC Students Facebook page.
Stone said she was happy to see student involvement.
“It was nice to see student initiative,” Stone said. “The Great Sort was a great opportunity to work with students directly. They bring a lot of energy.”
According to Stone, the University diverted 3142 tons of waste from landfills in the 2009-2010 school year. The amount of waste that either ended up in a landfill or was incinerated equated to 4206 tons, giving the University a diversion rate of 42.76 percent.
Alt box 1:
Data
Results of the sort:
80% Recyclable
10% Reusable
10% Landfill
Source: USGBC Students
Alt box 2:
NC State 2009-10 Totals:
3142 Tons Recycled/Diverted
4206 Tons Landfill
Diversion Rate: 42.76%
Source: Nessa Stone, operations manager of Waste Reduction and Recycling department