The University of Dayton Hanley Sustainability Institute is working to improve campus waste and recycling operations through student-led educational initiatives under a $70,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
The funding will help provide infrastructure and equipment to meet institutional goals to reduce campus waste by standardizing trash and recycling bins across UD, with detailed signage to help users properly separate items.
The grant also helps support the Hanley Sustainability Institute's campus food recovery and zero-waste event initiatives, which are run by HSI's student leaders.
"This grant is a significant milestone for UD's efforts around campus sustainability," said Don Pair, the institute's executive director. "The proposal submitted by HSI highlighted the partnership between staff professionals in campus operations and staff and student leaders in HSI, who have dedicated themselves to student leadership development focused on furthering sustainable practices on UD's campus. The success they will have in utilizing external funding from the Ohio EPA for this work is an excellent example of how collaboration with UD's campus operations offers truly impactful student learning experiences."
The institute employs more than 30 students each semester whose part-time jobs are dedicated to developing and facilitating programs and projects around campus sustainability topics. This summer, it also supports six undergraduate campus sustainability fellows.
The grant proposal was developed by Cassie Austin '23, HSI sustainability projects coordinator; Sarah Richard '19, HSI director of student programs; and HSI undergraduate student leader Lia Schmidt, a junior sustainability major from Kettering, Ohio.
Austin, who holds a master of public administration degree and sustainability certificate from UD, conducted a 2022 campus waste characterization study as a graduate research project. She found only 17% of the waste generated on campus gets recycled, although more than 30% could be recycled.
"I saw from the results that a lot of the waste infrastructure on campus was not necessarily encouraging good recycling and waste-sorting practices," Austin said.
Schmidt piloted a new system of standardizing of waste and recycling bins across campus during summer 2024 as the institute's first zero waste fellow. She tested three options for locating and organizing trash and recycling containers at Marycrest Hall to see which had the biggest impact on decreasing cross-contamination between materials intended for landfills and recycling centers.
"My goal with this project was to encourage accurate recycling practices and make it easier for students to properly dispose their waste," Schmidt said.
The most effective option was creating a "recycling hub" in a common area of the first-year residence hall. Students disposed their waste in one of Marycrest's two trash rooms; they were directed to take their recycling to bins in the common area.
The recycling hub system was fully implemented at Marycrest in January. The institute's staff and two undergraduate student fellows are working this summer to create similar hubs in seven additional residence halls.
In addition, new "dual stream" trash and recycling bins are being placed at predetermined locations in more than 40 main campus buildings. More than 300 existing bins from a previous recycling infrastructure improvement project will be updated with new backboard signage highlighting items that can be recycled.
"This grant will allow us to go around campus and standardize all of the recycling bins," Austin said. "That will involve working primarily with UD Facilities Management, which we've partnered with for some time now on waste-related initiatives, but also larger groups such as UD Dining Services and Flyer Enterprises, because they operate their own spaces and waste bins on campus."
The institute's food recovery program involves HSI student leaders working with UD Dining Services to package unserved food in single-use aluminum tins and transport it to the Food4Flyers food pantry, where it is repackaged in single-serve containers for students who use the pantry.
The Ohio EPA funding will allow the program to transition to a reusable container model, reducing the waste associated with single-use tins.
"We are working with UD Dining Services this summer to come up with a washing and sanitation plan for the containers, as well as storage," Austin said.
Campus zero-waste events are run by HSI student leaders, who provide bins, signs and containers for large campus events such as Culture Fest and the annual faculty and staff picnic, which allow attendees to easily separate their waste into recycling, compost and landfill categories for maximum diversion.
With the Ohio EPA funding, student leaders plan to create "zero waste kits" with reusable dishware, cups and cutlery, as well as signage and bins that can be borrowed to reduce the amount of waste generated at smaller office and student organization events.
"I am inspired by the work of the student leaders and have been thrilled that this grant has given us the opportunity to expand existing programs as well as try out new initiatives," Austin said.
Top photo: Hanley Sustainability Institute 2025 Zero Waste Fellow Gwen Turnbull at a recycling hub in Marycrest Hall.
Middle photo: Student leaders packaging unserved food in a campus kitchen for the HSI food recovery program.
Bottom photo: HSI student leaders at a zero-waste event at Joseph E. Keller Hall.