Trash walking across the campus

Imagine saving enough plastic trash bin liners in one year to cover 1,350 football fields. That is just one of the potential benefits of the centralized trash program now in play across the campus.

It’s a simple idea. Recycling bins stay near your desk, but trash needs to be placed in a shared “central” bin down the hall. It prompts people to think about what can be recycled and tends to increase recycling rates.

“The campus tried this idea on a limited basis several years ago and that past experience was encouraging,” said Kortni Wroten, sustainability and energy manager at UMass Chan Medical School. “As we move this program campus wide, we hope everyone will do their part and we can make a big difference in our recycling.”

In 2014 and 2015 a similar program was piloted in areas of the Lazare Research Building and the Albert Sherman Center. Data at the time showed the recycling rate in the LRB increased by 18 percent compared to other areas on campus not using the central trash approach.

That tracks with a major study of 170 higher education institutions across the United States and Canada that have implemented a centralized trash program. The 2024 study, sponsored by the Zero Waste Campus Council, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education and other organizations, found campuses increased their recycling rate by 66 percent and significantly reduced the contamination of recycled materials.

The new education and research building has been using the centralized trash model since it opened last summer. Now the LRB, ASC and the main Medical School building are included. Individuals are responsible for bringing trash accumulated in their office or workstation to nearby central locations throughout their floor. Old deskside trash bins have been removed and EBS staff will no longer collect trash from individual offices or workstations.

Last year, the campus used 126,948 plastic bag liners for all of those desk-side trash bins.

“Going to centralized trash locations will also give EBS staff more time to provide higher value services, instead of emptying so many bins every day,” Wroten said.

All offices and workstations will continue to have small deskside recycling bins. When those are full, they can be placed in the hallway for EBS collection.  (Laboratories are not included in this program. Trash and recycling processes there will remain as established.)

“It’s an adjustment for sure, but we have so many central locations we can make it work if we get everyone’s cooperation,” Wroten said.

The centralized trash program is a collaboration of the offices of Sustainability and Environmental Building Services. 

For additional information and floor plans that show central trash locations across campus, see  https://www.umassmed.edu/sustainability/recycling/ 

If you notice a central trash location that needs attention, please contact the UMass Chan Operations Console at 508-856-3292.