Julie Muir is inviting everyone to a waste audit.
Julie Muir, PSSI recycling manager for Stanford, is inviting everyone to the final waste audit of the year. The waste audit—the 20th Muir has done—will be Friday, May 21, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the PSSI/Stanford Recycling Center at 399 Bonair Siding, across from Parking & Transportation Services.
She promises that “you will see the world differently after you have experienced sorting through a day’s worth of trash—and you will even save some bottles and cans, paper and food from death in a landfill and allow them to go on to another useful life.”
During a waste audit, volunteers open bags of trash and sort the material into 12 categories. The materials are then measured and weighed. Lab coats, gloves, glasses and other protective gear are provided, and Muir promises the event is “not as gross as you might think.”
She says, “Our purpose is to characterize the waste that we are sending to the landfill to see where we need to improve or expand waste reduction, recycling and composing programs. These audits have allowed us to develop useful and interesting data on the waste stream that will allow us to design a Zero Waste Plan for the campus. We have learned that over 20 percent of what we send to the landfill is bottles and cans and paper, and 30 percent is food and compostable material.”
Email Muir at [email protected] and visit https://recycling.stanford.edu.
