Zero Waste Research Center Geertje Grootenhuis, Shannon Davis, Emily McKeon, & Kristen Klein
The Zero Waste Research Center is an initiative within Campus Recycling and Refuse Services that targets upstream materials and aims to find reusable, compostable, or recyclable alternatives in order to achieve UC Berkeley’s goal of Zero Waste by 2020.
Memorial Stadium & Haas Pavilion The ZWRC has worked extensively with Cal Athletics and Cal Dining to host the 2014 Zero Waste Basketball Game as part of Recyclemania, and to certify Memorial Stadium and Haas Pavilion as zero waste venues. The ZWRC ensures that all of Cal Dining’s concessional offerings are compostable or recyclable and that Cal Athletics provides suitable bin infrastructure. The current souvenir cup sold by Cal Dining is a #5 plastic. The ZWRC has been researching #1/#2 plastic alternatives.
EPP Road Show The EPP (Environmentally Preferred Products) Road Show is a collaboration between the ZWRC, OfficeMax, and UC Berkeley Procurement Services. The goal of the EPP Road Show is to promote environmentally preferred alternatives to common office supplies by distributing samples and educating building occupants. ZWRC determined that one of the most commonly purchased and wasteful office item is the writing pen because current disposable pens only utilize the ink and then have to be landfilled. The ZWRC found a recyclable and reusable solution with the Pilot B2P pen, which is made from recycled water bottles and has refillable ink.
One of the products in the EPP Road Show is the B2P, Bottle 2 Pen. It is made from recycled water bottles and is refillable.
The EPP Road Show event at California Hall in February 2014.
Plastic Disclosure Project
The Plastic Disclosure Project’s goal is to analyze UC Berkeley’s plastic waste stream and determine the lifecycle of each plastic materials- from extraction to end-use. The final step of the PDP is to identify sources of campus’s common plastics such as Aquafina bottles, to-go containers, and Solo cups.
Plastics Lab
One of the main challenges in finding upstream solutions for plastics is identifying the plastic type. Through the Plastic Disclosure Project, the ZWRC established a working relationship with Mike Biddle, President and Founder of MBA Polymers. When MBA Polymers closed its R&D Facility, the company donated plastic identification equipment and provided training to identify various types of plastics. The UC Berkeley College of Engineering provided a laboratory space for ZWRC to set up a plastics identification lab. The ZWRC is now using the lab to identify various plastic materials used in the laboratory settings and to find recycling or composting alternatives.
Some of the equipment donated by MBA Polymers in the Plastics Lab.