| Spring 2001:
Battery Recycling at Lewis and Clark College: An Abstract
Our foot print group has spent much of the past month attempting to implement a successful battery recycling program at Lewis and Clark College. What follows is an abstract for such a program. The infrastructure displayed below should act as a guide for students, in cooperation with facilities services, in setting up a successful battery collection operation next fall semester (2001).
I. NWFF (North West Fire Fighters) Environmental (1-800-942-4614) provides relatively inexpensive and convenient collection services, their prices are as follows:
- NWFF charges a minimum collection fee of $60.00-always. Additional charges are per pound of batteries collected.
- Batteries:
- Alkaline/Carbon (AAA-D, 6 v & 9v) $1.40/lb
- Lead Acid $ .68/lb.
- Lithium (camera, special handling) $6.58/lb.
- Ni-Cad (rechargeable) $1.55/lb.
- *Batteries must be separated by the school prior to collection. Separation should not prove difficult as most batteries collected from resident halls and office buildings will be alkaline.
- Containment Bins:
- Containment Bin (Fiber) $7.50 each
- 55 gallon metal drum $46.00 each
- 55 gallon poly drum (Lead Acid Storage) $78.72 each
- 6.5 gallon pail $10-.00 each
- Containment bins are required for long term alkaline battery storage and transportation. They are certified by the Oregon Department of Transportation.
**NWFF also collects and recycles all types of florescent lamps & bulbs. See attached flyer for additional pricing information.
***NWFF does not recycle material on sight-they are a transfer facility.
II. Uncertified collection bins can be placed in communal living areas. We needn't scatter the campus with such bins, but rather place them strategically (i.e. Templeton student center, the main lounges of
resident halls, and academic department offices). While uncertified (by the OR. DOT), the collection bins should be professional and safe in their appearance.
- Students (An ENVS group or other gracious volunteers) will become responsible for transferring collected batteries from campus wide collection bins to larger, certified collection bins located at Facilities Services. Here, the batteries will also be separated.
III. NWFF requires a minimum of 60 lbs. for pick-up. When a sufficient amount of batteries are in storage NWFF will be called for collection. Collection will happen on an as needed basis while the program is in its infancy. A permanent account can be established with NWFF when it proves cost effective.
VI. The key to our battery campaign will be PUBLICITY!!
- a poster will be hung! Using a minimum for materials of course.
- An explanatory email will be sent to Lewis and Clark community during the beginning of the semester outlining the importance of such a program.
- Before this spring 2001 semester terminates our footprint group will create a small submission for the Residence Life Brochure "Settling In" regarding the new Lewis and Clark battery recycling program!!. The Brochures are given to every dorm resident in the fall.
- Additional informational flyers will be sent to department offices.
V. That's it! Cheers to a successful program!
Spring 2002: Khai East, Travis Eddy, and Elizabeth Jones
This year’s footprint group worked on four projects:
- Surveying dorms, classrooms, and campus offices on their recycling habits.
- Investigating how much garbage LC produces and where it goes after it leaves campus.
- Expanding a work-study position for composting pre-consumer organic waste in the Bon cafeteria to include post-consumer waste. Proposed developing other work-study positions to manage waste and recycling issues on campus.
- Finding out what other schools are doing about waste management and how LC compares to them.
For the survey, we found that most the students in the dorms know what is recyclable and use their recycling bins on a regular basis. We found that the faculty and other campus offices have one specific recycling area per department, but very few have recycling bins in their own offices or personal workspace. We also found that the faculty did not notice any recycling bins in their classrooms but would like to have them there.
We talked with Claire Peterson of Facility Services who told us that our garbage was hauled away by Trash Co. This company also takes our recycling and separates it, but ships the plastic material to a different company to be processed. Within past five years, Trash Co. has developed a more efficient recycling method so that even if our recyclable materials are mixed up, they can still be sorted.
The average student wastes about a 1/3 of a pound of food per day in the Bon. This fact was our incentive to reduce the amount of organic waste produced which could otherwise be composted. We looked into implementing a program in the Bon that would separate post-consumer waste by having different color trays to indicate which food could be composted and which food could be thrown in the trash. The Footprint Food Group has more information about this subject at their link.
Finally, we looked into what other schools are doing to reduce their campus waste production. We found that, in general, other schools are doing a better than job than LC does at reducing waste. For example, some colleges have a pay-per-item system in their cafeterias instead of the “all-you-can-eat” buffet style that the Bon currently has.
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