Sustainability at UD

The U.S. generates more waste per capita than any other country in the world. When you throw something away, it doesn't just disappear for good. When we recycle and compost materials, they are given the chance to be used again. Recycling and composting diverts materials from landfills, which take up space and can have toxic effects on the communities (both human and ecosystems) that surround them.

Waste management is a complex issue with local and global implications. With your help in sorting waste properly, your waste can end up in compost that supports the growth of food and plants or recycled to give a second life to plastic materials.

UD is located in Montgomery County, and its landfill waste gets taken to the Montgomery County Solid Waste District. After this, UD's waste gets taken to the Rumpke Sanitary Landfill (known as "Mount Rumpke") near Cincinnati, OH. Mount Rumpke is the 6th largest landfill in the United States.

When certain materials decompose in landfills, they produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Rumpke has a gas reclamation facility to harness the methane produced and put it back into pipelines.

UD pays for landfill pickup services whereas recycling pickup services are at a reduced cost.

UD's recycling waste gets taken by Rumpke to its recycling facility in Cincinnati, OH. Rumpke has single-stream recycling, which means they sort UD's recyclables once they get to the facility. Make sure your recyclables are rinsed out, clean and meet Rumpke's accepted items list.

At the facility, Rumpke uses an extensive amount of sorting techniques and machines to sort recyclables, pack them, and ship them to material buyers.

Compost from UD's dining halls goes to a the campus in-vessel composter. When mixed with landscaping waste, the resulting nutrient-rich soil amendment feeds the campus garden.

Hanley Sustainability Institute student leaders also run a Neighborhood Composting Program where they pickup five-gallon buckets from students' porches and bring them to Old River Park. At Old River, compost is added to the new in-vessel composter. Finished compost gets used in the Old River Park Garden as well as by Facilities Management for landscaping around campus.