Waste Not ...

In September, President’s Sustainability Research Fellowship (PSRF) students Vanessa Meng ’19 and Adina Spertus-Melhus ’17 spearheaded a campus waste assessment. 

With 35 volunteers, they examined 1,680 pounds of campus waste, finding that most of what went into trash could instead have been recycled or composted. With education and effort, Swarthmore’s garbage footprint can be greatly reduced.

“We have two goals for improving campus waste streams,” says Sustainability Program Manager Melissa Tier ’14, “reducing the overall creation of any type of waste, and diverting as much waste as possible away from trash and ideally into compost.”

This year, 10 PSRF students are working on seven projects to enhance Swarthmore’s sustainability goals. 

+ THROW AWAY MORE THOUGHTFULLY: swarthmore.edu/sustainability/waste