Written by Bill Carlson.
One critical initiative listed in the NC State Sustainability Strategic Plan is to achieve a 70% landfill diversion rate from the 2006 baseline toward zero waste. The NC State Materials Support team has a few tips of their own for how a simple step can make a huge difference in the process of diverting waste out of the landfill.
Every day, the Materials Support team drives around campus picking up items submitted for surplus by departments who no longer have a business use for them. Items are dropped off at the Materials Support Warehouse, tagged and if applicable, prepared to be sold as surplus to NC State departments, state agencies, non-profit organizations or the public.
Although each day might look the same for our drivers, there is one variable that does make our job exciting: the kind of surplus items being picked up.
These may range from simple items, such as overstock office supplies, to more complex ones, such as radiological medical equipment from the College of Veterinary Medicine or a laser from Burlington Labs.
Our Impact
One of the aspects of the Zero Waste Wolfpack initiative involves tracking and reporting waste disposal streams generated from NC State, which allows us to better manage the waste disposal processes on campus and also work with generators to reduce their waste.
This is where our job comes into play! After each surplus sale, if the asset does not already have the weight recorded in the Asset Management system, we look up the weight in a catalog of items such as desks, refrigerators, computers, etc. with standard assigned weights. This allows us to calculate, in weight, how much we divert out of the landfill through the sale, recycling and repurposing of surplus property.
Join Our Zero Waste Efforts!
One way you can support our landfill diversion tracking and reporting efforts is by weighing all capital assets as soon as you acquire them. The weight can be entered when the asset is entered into the system. That information would then be available when the item has served its useful life and is submitted for surplus or is traded in.
This simple action has a domino effect that can help with tracking and reporting efforts and saves time and energy required to weigh assets at a later time. Together, we can achieve a Zero Waste campus.