Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn.

Sustainability

Waste Reduction

Recycling on campus 

Recycling stations are available in every building on campus, including every residence hall. The college recycles aluminum cans, plastic (anything with a recycling symbol, except #3 and #6), office paper, and newspaper through MinnKota Recycling.

Bins for plastic and aluminum are in nearly every building, with office paper recycling bins available in every computer lab and other campus locations. Magazines and catalogs can be recycled in the post office, and newspapers can be recycled near all newspaper stands. Through a cooperative effort with the President’s Sustainability Council and the Student Government Association, the college has added nine exterior recycling containers that, in addition to collecting plastic and aluminum, also collect glass bottles. In the first full year of glass recycling, we recycled over 3,600 pounds of glass.

Tin, cardboard and paperboard, and batteries are also recycled on campus. Tin recycling is available in residence hall kitchens and near the ATM in Knutson Campus Center. Cardboard can be flattened and left for recycling near any garbage or recycling bin. Batteries can be recycled near the post office boxes or at the Mugaas Physical Plant.

Concordia students have a history of leading the way with recycling. Until recently, Minnkota did not provide pickup services for glass. Concordia students organized and transported the recyclables themselves. Green, brown and clear glass recycling bins are located in Offutt Concourse, Brown Hall, Knutson Campus Center and the Bogstad apartments. Over the past decade, the school has recycled an average of 87.5 tons of recyclable commodities annually.

During move-in days in the fall, Facilities Support adds cardboard dumpsters near the dormitories to give students in residence halls an option for recycling.

Project Support recycles toner and printer cartridges from most of the printing machines in the office including the copier, plotter, and desktop printers.

Reduced printing

Concordia has a UniPrint system in the residence hall computer labs and the library. The UniPrint system can track paper usage and manage printing.

Often, students accidentally print additional copies of their papers by hitting print by mistake or not realizing which printer they are using. UniPrint requires that students type in their username and password at the printer before the paper is printed – dramatically reducing paper waste. The reduction should save paper and ink, as well as associated costs. In the library, this decreased paper use by almost 20%!

Department wide, Facilities Management has converted approximately 75% of paper timesheets to electronic entry. Working with front office staff, we are in the initial stages of submitting all purchase requisitions electronically. In addition to the physical paper savings, this will result in a more seamless and efficient transfer of information and will cut down on the time required to generate a purchase order from the purchase requisition.

In Facilities Management, we recycle paper printed on one side and print on the second side, reducing the amount of paper consumed. Paper that is not able to be re-used is recycled. We also print double sided whenever possible. These changes have resulted in a reduction in paper usage of approximately three cases of paper per year (30 reams). In another effort to reduce paper use, the front office scans paperwork rather than making photo copies. When possible, documents are emailed or scanned and emailed instead of printed and distributed. We are looking into software that allows us to save and manipulate documents on our computers instead of printing.

Trash-free classrooms

Concordia has trash-free classrooms. There is one trash can located on most floors of each academic building, right next to recycling bins. We found that many recyclable items were thrown in the trash because the bin was more convenient. This way, the bins are equally convenient, and many students now chose to recycle.

Other wast reduction efforts

Every year in the dormitories, worn mattresses are replaced with new mattresses. The worn mattresses are donated and repurposed to various organizations in the area. This year, approximately 175 mattresses will avoid going into the landfill.

Telecom now recycles used data wire instead of simply disposing of it.