UI waste audit looks at garbage contents

IOWA CITY - University of Iowa students, faculty and staff sorted through bags of garbage Thursday to make a point about recycling.

The “waste audit” was sponsored by the UI College of Dentistry and had volunteers from the college, the UI Office of Sustainability, Facilities Management and several undergraduate student groups.

It was the second waste audit the dental college has conducted. The first was in 2008, when the college started its recycling push. Since the start of the college's recycling program, the dental college has 34 tons less garbage each year sent to the landfill, Julie Reynolds, 26, said. Reynolds is a fourth-year dental student and helps lead the college's student Go Green program.

The point of Thursday's audit is to compare numbers now to waste totals in 2008, to see if people are recycling more, Reynolds said.

The volunteers sorted through one-day's worth of garbage from the College of Dentistry building, putting into organized bins the items that could be recycled.  The volunteers also weighed each category of waste.

Some things can't be recycled - the gloves that dental students use to treat patients, for example. And the sterilization pouches are half paper (recyclable) and half blue film (not recyclable). To see a bin full of the blue film portion of the pouches could lead officials to look for a different product that does not have as much waste, Nancy Slach, dental faculty member and advisor to the student Go Green group, said.

“When you look at your garbage, you look at it differently than when you just use things day to day,” Slach said.

During the waste sort, volunteers found some paper and water bottles that could have been recycled, Amy Myers, with the UI Office of Sustainability, said.

“It's actually pretty good. Ninety-five percent out of some of these bags is non-recyclable,” she said. “But there's still room for improvement.”

UI Residence Halls will conduct a waste sort in Daum and Burge halls next week, Myers said.