University of New Mexico Physical Plant

Department Recommendations Report

Researchers: Aaron Gunkel, Jason Mora,

Ryan Griego
 Table Of Contents
1. Executive Summary....................................................... 1
2. Introduction .............................................................................................. 2
3. Methods ...................................... 3
4. Analysis of Findings ............................................................................... 4
5. Recommendations ........................................................................................ 5
6. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 6
7. Appendices: survey questions, references...................................................... 7
 Executive Summary
We have conducted research we believe is necessary and crucial to
the continued maintenance of the Universities main campus. We chose to
conduct research on waste management because we believe it is essential
to the preservation of not only a clean healthy campus but a clean healthy
planet, every piece of trash we recycle we make the world a better place,
we used this as our reasoning as well as motivation. Our research sheds
light on waste usage and trash disposal amongst students that attend the
University of New Mexico. We wish to better the University and the
environment through our research, that is our main goal, we want to make
a positive impact and leave our mark at this University.
 Introduction

Our research began as a project for ENGL 219, but we quickly

realized that we were interested in what we were researching and
genuinely cared about it. Due to this we decided on research that may
benefit our world and University. Our research is something we are very
passionate about and something we took a lot of time compiling, we wish
to conduct this research on a much larger scale to gather more data to
support our proposed solution to the excess amount of waste generated by
the University and its students. We have made it our mission to push for
our solution to allow for a cleaner and more beautiful campus for
everyone.
Our basis for research was this statistic we found on an article while
conducting research for our presentation and portfolio. The article states
“The average family of four in the US produces 6,351 pounds of trash
each year.” This statistic equates to each person in the US accounts for
4.4 pounds of waste a day or 1,606 pounds a year. So essentially each
person in the US’s yearly waste production is equal in weight to that of a
female cow. This statistic really puts our production of waste into
perspective. In addition to this statistic our research has shown us that the
US produces 250+ million tons of trash each year. The amount of recycled
goods produced every year is a mere 87 Million tons of material. This is
roughly 34%, which is significantly lower than it should be.
 Methods
The chosen method was an anonymous survey conducted on the
campus, the surveys participants were completely random and spanned
various age groups as well as social classes and ethnic backgrounds. The
purpose of our research was to provide a detailed analysis regarding waste
management and to provide a solution to the extreme amount of
recyclable goods thrown away by students on campus.

To conduct our survey we asked a series of six questions to 18

random participants. The questions were as follows: “Do you always
recycle?” “Do you pay attention to where you throw your trash away?”
“Do you believe UNM as a whole recycles enough?” “Would you recycle
if you got paid to do it?” “Should UNM offer reverse recycling
machines?” and lastly “Do you think it is ethical to use money as an
incentive to recycle?” The results on these questions were fairly expected,
in short students do not recycle enough and believe that the University as
a whole does not prioritize recycling. Students unanimously believe that
we should recycle more than we currently do.
 Analysis of findings
Recycling at UNM
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Do you always Do you pay Do you think UNM Would you recycle Should UNM offer Do you think its
recycle? attention to where as a whole recycles if you got paid to do reverse recycling ethical to use
you throw your enough? it? vending machines money as an
trash away? on campus? incentive?

yes no

Our survey data shows an extreme lack of recycling being done

campus wide, however it does indicate that students do recognize the issue
with the lack of recycling. In addition students surveyed unanimously
supported our solution to help the excess waste produced here on campus.
Additional Research
In addition to our survey we conducted research on the total amount
of the Universities recent waste production and we found that as of 2015
there were 27,353 students enrolled at the University of New Mexico, this
means that in 2015, students alone produced 43,928,918 pounds of trash,
this isn’t including visitors, faculty, special events etc. That number alone
is outrageous, we need to make a push to reduce our waste output
immensely. According to the EPA “75% of the American waste stream is
recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it.” With those percentages
and statistics we have concluded that if UNM students had recycled 75%
of their trash it would’ve changed the total amount of waste used from
Almost forty four million to 10 million pounds, while this still seems like
a lot that is still thirty million pounds of waste not just thrown away.
 Recommendations
With these issues in mind I offer the following recommendations for
consideration to help combat the Universities waste issue.

1. Increase awareness of recycling and promote recycling more

on and around campus.
2. Implement Reverse Recycling vending machines to various
areas on campus, these machines take in recyclables and give
back money for recycling. The University and the students
would benefit from this.
3. Increase the amount of recycling bins in the SUB specifically
and around campus in general.

There are various versions of this reverse recycling vending

machine but they all serve the same purpose, it is a short-term investment
for the university that will yield extremely positive results such as a
cleaner campus, an extreme increase in recycling, and a huge number of
students participating. The university would also make money off of these
recycling machines, all of the recyclable material can be sold by the
university to a recycling company.
 Conclusion
Our research while limited provides an excellent base and standard
for future research regarding student waste usage as well as providing an
ideal solution to the issue. Our solution is for the university to provide
Reverse Vending Recycling machines. These pieces of technology work
as a bin that sorts recyclables and provides a return in the form of money
for recycling. It is our believe that these would reduce the amount of trash
found on campus tremendously, provide students with a way of earning
easy money and an incentive to recycle, and lastly to help combat the
growing issue of the overproduction of recyclable waste in the United
States. We hope you consider our recommendations and look forward to
meeting you as well as discussing our future research and plans to solve
this overabundance of waste issue that currently plagues our campus.
 Appendices
Survey Questions
• “Do you always recycle?”
• “Do you pay attention to where you throw your trash away?”
• “Do you believe UNM as a whole recycles enough?”
• “Would you recycle if you got paid to do it?”
• “Should UNM offer reverse recycling machines?”
• “Do you think it is ethical to use money as an incentive to
recycle?”

Works Cited
• Segarra, Elizabeth. “See How Much Waste the US Produces
Each Year -- and What You Can Do About It.” Truthout,
www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/37092-see-how-much-
waste-the-us-produces-each-year-and-what-you-can-do-
about-it).
• “11 Facts About Recycling.” DoSomething.org | Volunteer for
Social Change, www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-
about-recycling.
• “Municipal Solid Waste.” EPA, Environmental Protection
Agency,
archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/web/html/.