Annabel DeChant, a Service+ volunteer and graduate student at Miami University, grabbed bags out of the trash and recycling cans throughout Millett Hall. She took them back to the facility’s loading dock and began sorting them. She pulled recyclable bottles and cans out of the trash bags one by one and put them in the right places.
DeChant was among 10 volunteers participating in Miami’s waste audit following the Feb. 11 basketball game against Toledo.
The event was in conjunction with Campus Race to Zero Waste, formerly known as RecycleMania, said Susan Meikle from Miami’s Communications and Marketing department Miami is in a competition among other universities to produce the least amount of landfill waste.
According to Meikle, Miami dedicated the basketball game to sustainability, with different university green organizations tabling before the game started. Miami partnered with the City of Oxford and Rumpke.
Waste audit volunteers were both Miami students or from Service+. According to Tiffany Block, Program Director, Service+ is an Americorp program that connects Miami regional students with volunteer opportunities.
Olivia Herron, Miami’s Director of Sustainability, said Miami partnered with Rumpke before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to organize a waste audit. She said the Feb. 11 basketball game was the first time Miami has hosted a waste audit-themed basketball game since then.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to be really strategic about [Miami’s] partnerships with the city of Oxford and Rumpke,” Herron said.
Herron said the Campus Race to Zero Waste event was founded as a competition between Miami and Ohio University. The waste audit was a sub-competition of the event.
“[The competition] has a long history on our campus that we are proud of and want to continue the legacy of,” Herron said.
Herron said volunteers weigh out the amount of waste that goes to landfills, recycling and composting. Herron said she hopes Miami students learn about Rumpke’s recycling rules during their time in the dorms and carry the knowledge to when they live off campus.
“I think an easy takeaway [of the waste audit] is that we need more recycling bins in [Millet Hall],” said Herron. “So much of what we saw in the trash was recyclable.”
John Day, a junior psychology, English literature and pre-med co-major at Miami, volunteered at the waste audit. Day said Herron reached out to him because of his role in Miami’s Associated Student Government and sustainability organizations on campus. He said the event was his first waste audit.
“It was a lot of fun,” Day said. “We had a really good turnout, more than I expected.”
During the sporting event, different sustainability tips were projected on the TV screens and Miami President Gregory Crawford and his wife Dr. Renate Crawford participated in recycling-themed games at halftime.
Herron said Miami’s sustainability department is focused on offering more waste diversion opportunities on campus.
The Campus Race to Zero Waste competition lasts eight weeks. It began Feb. 2 and ends on March 29.
