Back in December 2016, a coworker and myself conducted a waste audit of Union Station, a popular dining location on campus. Marked landfill, recycling, and compost receptacles were collected from Union Station. These bags were collected during three separate hours of operation on this day. At the time of this audit, the waste receptacle station had three equal sized receptacles for landfill, recycling, and compost. Each receptacle was lined with a plastic bag. Four recycling bags, three landfill bags and three compost bags were audited. The total weights of the bags are shown at the right.
Waste Audit
Weight of Audited Bags
We found 12 common items that were contaminating the different waste streams. To the left is the total quantity of each item and the breakdown of which receptacles they were found. Each item in this table should be recycled. The table is organized to show the items that were most frequently misplaced out of the recycling receptacle.