News

Taking out the trash to cut costs on campus

Property management hopes dumpsters will also encourage recycling

By Rhonda Welcome

Posted on Sept. 13, 2004, at 12:00 a.m.

In an effort to conserve funds, University of Maine officials have placed dumpsters outside residence halls for students to bring their trash to. At least eight large dumpsters have already arrived on campus.

“This decision was made about a week before school started, to go with dumpsters,” said Gordon Nelson, director of property management said.

Returning students were e-mailed regarding the new plan when the dumpsters arrived. Students will now use the former resource recovery rooms for the processing of recyclable material. The rooms will be open 24 hours a day.

Smaller, covered dumpsters are on order, although a four-week wait is expected. They will be placed around the residence halls with plans for future landscaping and fencing.

In 2003, the University produced nearly three million pounds of waste with residence halls recycling 6,000 pounds of paper-container waste and the rest being sent to an incinerator.

“I think we can do a lot better,” Gordon said. One of the benefits of the new trash policy will be a decrease in the use of plastic bags by an estimate of 30 percent, due to the fact trash is not being rebagged and placed by the roadside six days a week.

Student reaction has been mixed with many complaints that the dumpsters are not aesthetically pleasing and that the location is an inconvenience.

“They do not look pretty in front of dorms,” said Joe Hegart of Cumberland Hall . “They are a big pain and will be a bigger pain in the winter,” said Laura Zukowski adding that she thinks having the dumpsters outside, rather than inside, will be easier for custodians.

Gordon says that’s exactly the point of the reorganization.

“They’ve retained the same number of janitors and they will be able to concentrate on more professional work, rather than haul trash out of the buildings,” Gordon said.

University officials feel the new system will be an improvement over last year but note that they hope students will take advantage of the new focus on recycling.

“We are losing a lot of cardboard, which we could recycle, due to it being thrown into the dumpsters,” Scott Wilkinson, UMaine environmental compliance officer said. “This was a management decision to reduce janitor overtime and we see this as a bump and a learning curve in the process of managing our waste,” Gordon said.

It is yet to be seen if this reduction in cost will materialize the estimated $30,000 dollars in actual savings to the University, or whether or not recycling will increase. Gordon said he hopes the dumpsters’ visibility causes students to think about where their trash is going and how it can be handled best.

“I do not have all the answers, and I am searching for solutions, and I see this as an educational process for all of us,” Gordon said.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 13th, 2004, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.