Vanderbilt University Targets Zero Waste within 10 Years

This week, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, committed to achieving zero waste by 2030. The university anticipates reaching a 90% diversion rate from landfill through a master plan that accelerates current efforts.

Vanderbilt reports having already reached a 47% diversion rate. According to the university’s Zero Waste Master Plan published in January 2019, the school’s per capita annual waste generation in 2018, including landfill trash and recycling — and excluding construction and demolition waste — was 660 pounds or 1.8 pounds per day. Vanderbilt noted that this was substantially lower than the national average of 4.5 pounds per day per person.

Waste diversion has been increasing yearly by 5%, the university said in the master plan, which would allow Vanderbilt to reach 90% within 10 years.

Existing approaches include implementing major waste reduction measures in dining, switching to sustainable printing options, and developing a purchasing program that takes environmental factors into consideration.

Last August, the university moved to eliminate all single-use plastic bottles from its operations. The school intends to end institutional single-use plastic bottle purchases by 2025, except in laboratories because of safety concerns and the lack of available alternatives, according to Vanderbilt. The university also plans to expand food waste collection to include all dining areas and residential halls during the same timeframe.

Additional strategies from the extensive list detailed in the master plan include:

• Replacing boxed lunches with larger family-style food servings.
• Expanding organic waste collection to include paper towels in bathrooms.
• Eliminating paper towels in bathrooms where feasible and use hand dryers instead.
• Providing more recycling receptacles than trash receptacles at events.
• Providing housekeeping service for recycling in offices instead of just for trash.
• Incorporating sustainable practices into vendor contracts.
• Altering sizing and lids of recycling bins to allow a larger variety of items to be recycled.
• Reducing and eventually eliminating Styrofoam cups, food containers, and packaging materials, except for the coolers used to transport laboratory materials.
• Reassessing one-use products, such as air filters and ceiling tiles.
• Reducing cardboard, shrink wrap, and other packing materials from product shipments to the university.
• Using electronic versions for publications.

“This plan embodies the triple bottom line: positive social, environmental, and economic impact,” vice chancellor for administration Eric Kopstain said. “We can commit to this goal knowing it is feasible because we remained committed to our mission by carrying out extensive studies and thorough research to establish a vision and plan backed up by data.”

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