GMU Earth Day 2009 Trash Clean-up and Audit

Organizer: Ashlea Smith, Intern, Office of Sustainability and member of the GMU EAG

Participants: Jessica D’Emedio, Lauren Perry, Bob McMurtry, Gopi Kapoor, Lucy Biederman, Robert Gabay, Katie Partlow, Jose Gayoso, and various

students that passed by and said, “Hey! I want to help.”

April 22, 2009

Inventory Needed

• Large, prominent place to set up • A many people as possible- the more the better• Student media and newspaper journalists and

photographers to take pictures and make a fuss about your trash audit!

• Big Tarps• Signage describing audit and soliciting help• Lots of Recycling Bins for various materials• Box of bags and gloves• Willingness to get dirty and show the campus how

much litter is around campus and in our streams• Time- at least two hours to dedicate to picking up

litter across campus and sorting it into the correct recycling or trash bin.

The Perfect Trash Audit Layout

-Co-mingled

-Paper bins & Compost -Recycling Center

vs -recyclables -Sorters

Tally&

Over-sight

Signage

Signage

Signage

Chuck trash over here from collection site

# of participants needed: 8

3-collection sorters

2- soft vs. hard sorters

1-tally/oversight

2-talkers

Signage Signage

Signage

Pictures from GMU Earth Day Campus Clean up and Trash Audit

4/22/2009

While our trash audit was smaller than originall dreamed- it still brought in a lot of litter from across campus. Here, EAG members are dropping off what they found around campus.

Ashlea, Jessica, and Lucy set up the trash audit area and Noel started to organize what litter goes into which pile.

Pictures from GMU Earth Day Campus Clean up and Trash Audit

4/22/2009

Participants put on gloves, get bags, collect litter, and Ashlea dons a bag and the sorting begins….

and continues… and continues for many hours.

Pictures from GMU Earth Day Campus Clean up and Trash Audit

4/22/2009

Ashlea tries recruiting while wearing her “new black dress”

Some folks come over help out. They must have been drawn by the appeal of wearing a person-sized trash bag.

Recruits Robert Gabay and Lucy Beiderman (in pink hoodie) help sort. Not pictured- goats were brought to Mason to be natural lawn mowers and were about 50 meters away from the audit.

The Results are In!After several hours of collection and auditing, the results of the Trash Audit are below:(1= one 50-gallon black trash bag):

1.5 - co-mingled recycling. (majority was plastic bottles and Redbull cans) 1- cardboard.5 - newspapers (a LOT of Braodside copies!)1.5 - mixed paper (including a LOT of receipts, salt-pepper wrappers/magazines/flyers for campus events).25 - white paper (essays/flyers/scraps) 1 - plastic film (grocery bags/bubble wrap/plastic wrap- especially blowing down sidewalks and pulled from streams)1 - compostable waste (including soggy paper napkins/compostable containers/food waste).25 - cigarette butts/boxes/cartons.25- wrappers (energy bars/candy bars/cookie and potato chip bags)  1 - other types of waste (twine/foil confetti from parties- this includes the car bumper and clothing mentioned below)1- polystyrene cups, plates and plastic utensils.25 - containers for creamers/cream cheese/ketchup/bottle caps

More News from the Earth Day Audit!• We found 3 pairs of socks, a pair of underwear, a

car bumper, a baby brown snake living in a glass bottle, 2 tee-shirts, a pair of yellow gym shorts, one biking glove, a notebook, two unused condoms, and an unidentifiable action figure.

• We put the snake in the Rain Garden near the JC (he was a little harmless snake- not a copperhead, rattlesnake, or anything identifiable as dangerous)

• The Earth Day Clean-up and Audit made the front pages of the April 27th Broadside newspaper and the online Mason Gazette http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/13536

Front Page Photo!

Photography credit:

Laura Foltz, Broadside

Wrappers3%

Newspaper5%

Cardboard10%

White paper3%

Mixed paper15%

Compostable waste11%

Plastic Film10%

Non-recyclable waste11%

Co-mingled15%Poltstyrene and plastic

utensils11%

Condiment containers 3%

Cigarette butts and boxes

3%

Co-mingled CardboardNewspaper Mixed paperWhite paper Plastic FilmCompostable waste Cigarette butts and boxesWrappers Non-recyclable wastePoltstyrene and plastic utensils Condiment containers

2009 Earth Day Trash Audit Analysis