During a men’s basketball game, we shadowed Graham Oberly, the sustainability coordinator at Ohio State. We were able to observe and study the various trash receptacles along with the collection procedures.
Cardboard collector
In the kitchen, all cardboard boxes are placed into this disposal unit. Only cardboard boxes are allowed in this unit to make the recycling sorting process easier.
Kitchen waste bins
These trash cans are used by the kitchen for food waste during food production. Not shown, there are also a number of small bins underneath the counters used explicitly for recycling.
Recycling gathering units
These bins are the gathering receptacles used by the trash collectors to keep all of the recyclables in single places. When workers find things to recycle around the arena, they will drop them off in these units to keep the trash collection organized.
Primary trash unit
Recycle unit and secondary trash unit
These are the primary disposal units stationed in the walking area at the Schottenstein Center. The recycle unit, shown in the right image, does not have very many replicas around the arena. The trash and recycle units also had some items that did not belong.
The cost for each of these units is about $600 and the coordinators only want to use these units so as to provide an adequate appearance to go with the Schottenstein Center.
Lower bowl seating
Lower bowl seating
After the basketball game concluded, the stadium seating showed some trash in the aisles but in past, larger, games there has been more waste left behind.
Grind2energy container
This is a grind2energy compost container. What it does is contain the broken down solid food waste before being transported out when full. The unit utilizes a system similar to a garbage disposal system that grinds the food and then mixes it with water. This mixture is then automatically pumped into this container.
Additional Notes:
Depending on the building, certain things cannot be recycled, including:
- Styrofoam
- Food containers with significant food on them
- Pizza boxes with significant grease present
There are differences between the recycling procedures of the various buildings around campus
- Some residence halls utilize extremely limited recycling and trash units.
- Ohio Stadium utilizes two programs to achieve 0 waste
- A correctional facility to sort through the waste and recyclables: http://www.drc.ohio.gov/scc
- Price Farms takes food waste for compost: http://www.pricefarms.org/
- A post-game clean up crew that includes NROTC members will clean up the stands and the stadium has a sorting team to go through the waste. There are also well-labeled disposal bins around the stadium concourse for trash and recycling : https://fod.osu.edu/sites/default/files/zw_process_brochure.pdf
- The dining halls vary, but they all either use food pulpers (http://www.hobartcorp.com/products/commercial-dishwashers/waste-equipment/wastepro-1200/) or bio-digesters (http://www.waste2-0.com/).