Campus Involvement

Green Living

Reduce/Reuse

What can you do at Bowdoin to help reduce waste?  We’ve outlined 6 simple steps everyone can follow.  Also, for a clever and entertaining story about having too much "stuff" check out this video called The Story of Stuff, we highly recommend it http://www.storyofstuff.com

1. Eliminate unwanted catalogs – go to http://www.catalogchoice.com to sign up for their free service that lets you decline paper catalogs you no longer wish to receive.  For academic and administrative departments, start a program that systematically reduces the amount of unwanted mail.  Contact Keisha Payson for more details on how to implement this simple program.

2. Think Reusable – as in reusable mugs, reusable water bottles, reusable grocery bags & reusable lunch bags.  You get a discount at the Café every time you use a reusable mug.  If you use a reusable lunch bag to the Express in Moulton Union you can get a card stamped.  After 6 stamps you enter your card into our raffle.  Twice a semester we pick a lucky winner.  Past prizes include items from L.L. Bean, Patagonia and Horney Toad.

3. Buy Used Items -  One of Maine’s best-kept secrets is the Uncle Henry’s swap & sell guide.  You have to be quick because items sell fast – but every Thursday you won’t likely find a better deal on the newsstands!  To get rid of items you no longer want but that still have a usable life, post them for free on the digest, or check out the Bowdoin Classifieds at http://www.bowdoin.edu/news/classifieds/, the Salvation Army, and don’t forget the Give & Go sale at the end of the year!

4. Borrow seldom used items – Get together with roommates, friends or other academic departments to borrow and lend seldom used items (e.g.  iron, vacuum cleaner, paper cutter, blender).  Again, use the digest as a way to seek items you are looking to borrow.

5. Print Double Sided – Bowdoin uses roughly 1,775 cases of paper each year, which equates to nearly 9 million sheets of paper per year.  Help decrease those numbers by printing only what you really need and always printing double sided.  Check out the Environmental Defense Fund website for some cleaver printable pdf signs that remind people to print double sided.   Also, if you do need to print single sided and have drafts you don’t end up using, reuse the back sides rather than just recycling.  You can cut them into quarters, bind them and use them as note pads.  Or pick up a professionally binded green pad at the campus copy center - made from wasted single sided sheets of paper from campus computer labs.

6. Rechargeable Batteries -  Ever think about how many batteries you have thrown away in your lifetime? Rechargeable batteries can significantly reduce your waste, and the number of your trips to the hardware store to buy the throw-aways!  Available in any office products store, or on the website of Bowdoin’s office supply vendor.


Breakdown of Bowdoin Waste Reduction

  • Monitoring:

    * Sustainable Bowdoin conducts bi-annual food audits to monitor waste and waste prevention in the dining halls.
    * Sustainable Bowdoin conducts annual trash audits to monitor how much and which type of recycleable material is ending up in the trash.
    * Recycling and Trash are weighed and tallied weekly to track progress.

  • Policy:

    * Resize dumpsters to reduce costs and the number of pickups.
    * Buy in bulk to reduce packaging.
    * Re-use items where possible and find alternative ways to recycle. Check out Give and Go for an example of re-using in a big way.
    * Reduce hazardous waste material generation and minimize adverse affects of hazardous waste on the natural environment.
    * Implement further monitoring and measuring to better understand waste at Bowdoin.

  • Recycling - There are recycling facilities in every building on campus for single stream recycling. All dorm rooms and apartment complexes are provided recycling bins as are all office spaces.

  • Paper Products
    * Office Products are procured over the Internet to reduce the number of catalogs sent to campus and minimize the number of invoices sent to our accounting department.
    * Online timecards and other mailings reduce paper waste by thousands of sheets per year, simultaneously reducing printing costs and distribution time. (Online timecards alone save over 26,000 sheets per year.)
    * Ongoing efforts on behalf of the mail center minimize junk mail.
    * Bowdoin Community Members are encouraged to use their own mugs rather than paper cups to carry beverages from the dining halls. First years are given their own travel mugs for this purpose.
    * Double sided photocopying combined with a fee for copying over a certain number of pages per semester and a mechanism to abort long print jobs help prevent printing waste.
    * Single sided paper is made into "green pads" at the copy center and put back to use in the library and around campus. Recycled notebooks, paper and other items are sold in the bookstore and text book annex.
    * The placement of napkins on dining hall tables reduces napkin use as students take what they need.
    * Unbleached, dioxin-free dining hall napkins are composted.

  • Plastic
    * Bowdoin Housekeeping staff uses a biodegradable concentrate that utilizes different, task-specific dilution ratios. The dilution of a single concentrate reduces plastic container use.
    * Jack Magee's Pub switched from Styrofoam to biodegradable Green Wave take away containers.

  • Metal
    * Bowdoin Grounds Department recycles all scrap metal at a local scrap metal yard.
    * Bowdoin Dining Services recycles metal food-packaging containers.

  • Organic Matter
    * Composting
    * Donation of unused food to local food shelters. Link
    * The Bowdoin Grounds Department "recycles" leaf and grass clippings via composting piles and by leaving grass clippings on the lawn as a fine layer of mulch.

  • Odds n' Ends Recyclables:
    *Bowdoin recycles office equipment and furniture to different departments. When useful items are no longer wanted, the College sells or donates the goods to individuals and organizations in the local community.
    * Batteries, ink-cartridges, overheads, CD's, and other technological "waste" are delivered to GreenDisk to be recycled or re-used. Green Disk Techno Trash cans are located in the Coles Tower, H & L and Kanbar computer labs.
    * Facilities Management incorporates recycling programs into all renovation and construction projects, recycling stone, wood, and metals to achieve a 90% or higher recycle rate.

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