uncw recycling expansion initiative · since that time recycling has operated primarily as a...
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Executive Summary
UNCW Recycling is on a mission to recover all economically feasible waste commodities from our
community to build a sustainable business with the vision to reduce UNCW’s landfill destined waste to
ZERO. UNCW Recycling is currently operating in a facility not designed for this function with limited
access, public visibility, and very constricted space for growth. It is the desire for Recycling to expand to
a new location with easy access to the public and a state of the art facility designed to maximize utility
and efficiency and to allow educational engagement and expansion of the program into new areas of
waste recovery. UNCW Recycling is seeking the grant of two acres of land and funding to design and
develop a new recycling facility.
UNCW Recycling’s Mission Statement
UNCW Recycling’s mission is to sustainably capture and reuse waste commodities with the ultimate goal
of eliminating UNCW’s waste bound for landfill. It is our intent to engage the minds, hands, and hearts
of the UNCW university community to design, construct, and operate sustainable enterprises in the
attempt to realize this mission.
UNCW Recycling
UNCW Recycling was started in 1989 to help the university meet the waste reduction goals set by the
Solid Waste Management Act of 1989. That act required each state agency to implement a plan, with a
coordinator, to reduce waste by 25% by 1993. The act went further to require institutions to “prohibit
non-conforming disposal of disallowed materials” which made it illegal to dispose of certain items in
North Carolina landfills. Since that time Recycling has operated primarily as a service by various
departments under Business Affairs. Due to the market for and economics of recovered materials, it
was run as a cost center with salaries, the equipment and much of the material disposal costs being paid
for by the university. In 2010, Business Applications was given the new charge of managing this
function. An analysis of the operations revealed that the maturation of the recyclables market allowed
for the opportunity to realize revenue from already collected recyclables. Additionally, it was
discovered that electronic waste was a new valued commodity that could be captured from the waste
stream. This increase in revenue could be used to offset more costs. In January of 2012, UNCW
Recycling entered into an agreement with Synergy Recycling to purchase these commodities. UNCW
Recycling, working in conjunction with the NC State Surplus Property, developed a system to recycle the
university’s low value end-of-life electronics, thus avoiding the bid or other disposal processes and the
eventuality of the former state property entering the waste stream.
In spring of 2012, UNCW’s electronic recycling program “E-Cycle” was introduced to the students with
the desire to roll this program out to the greater community as soon as reasonable mechanisms could
be put in place to handle the anticipated increase in volume.
It is the goal of UNCW Recycling to efficiently and sustainably capture as much and as many valuable
recyclable commodities as feasible from the campus waste stream, continually increasing revenue
streams and reducing landfill bound waste and associated costs. Additionally, where economically
beneficial, UNCW Recycling would like to offer some recycling programs to the surrounding community.
To effectively accomplish this goal, UNCW recycling needs to have a new facility for a depot specifically
designed to maximize the efforts of a limited staff to process increasing volumes of these commodities.
This site should include the infrastructure and contiguous space for expansion of existing enterprises
and the addition of new endeavors, and provide easy 24 hour access for community drop-off. UNCW
Recycling is asking for a commitment of roughly 2 acres of university property on which to design and
build the depot with additional space for future expansion and funding to develop this facility.
Recycling Benefits
From a cost reduction/profit generation standpoint, each ton of material captured and excluded from
the waste stream saves the university approximately $60 in direct transportation and disposal costs. As
an example, that same ton of cardboard, recycled and sold as a commodity, currently produces gross
revenue of approximately $85. Combined gross savings and profit for recycling a ton of cardboard at the
current rate is $135. That number is currently around $160 per ton for baled PET plastic containers.
Reuse of these materials not only reduces strain on landfills but inherently saves energy and the
environment. According to Alcoa, recycling an aluminum can saves 95 percent of the energy required
to make the same amount of aluminum from virgin materials. Additional benefits include the reduction
of strip mining which is primarily used to acquire the raw bauxite ore. According to The Association of
Post-Consumer Plastic Recyclers it takes 84% less energy to produce plastic from recycled PET flake and
reduces the direct use of petrochemicals in the manufacture of new plastic. According to Waste
Management, cardboard recycling saves 24% of the total energy to produce virgin cardboard and
reduces the need for deforestation to produce new raw materials.
Electronic waste can contain mercury, lead, cadmium, poly-brominates, barium, lithium, and polyvinyl
chloride. The health effects of these toxins on humans include birth defects and brain, heart, liver,
kidney, and skeletal system damage. These materials can significantly affect the nervous and
reproductive systems of the human body. Recycling eliminates the toxic wastes and allows the
recapture of these and other materials for use in producing new products.
At this time, North Carolina State law bans PET bottles, aluminum cans, batteries, wooden pallets,
televisions, and computer equipment from landfills. Despite this ban, it is estimated by the NC
Department of Natural Resources, that North Carolinians still throw away more than $74,072,000 in
aluminum cans on an annual basis.
Recycling is an entrepreneurial method by which the university can protect and be a steward of the
coastal environment, preserve funds, conserve natural resources, grow green jobs, engage the
university and community, provide a positive image and role model, and be in compliance with state
law. UNCW Recycling works to capture all these items and in most cases is able to monetize them as
commodities which provide the raw materials for employment in the green sector of the economy.
An innovative initiative UNCW recycling would like to explore is to allow community business to gift
their cardboard to the university. We could engage students of the Cameron School of Business to
perform market analysis and business development. It is Recycling’s supposition that many local
businesses capture cardboard, but have to pay for its disposal. The relatively high value of baled
cardboard would allow UNCW Recycling to advantageously capture and monetize this commodity with
the profit used as a gift to the university. UNCW could receive the cardboard on campus without fee;
reducing the originators’ cost of disposal. Once processed, UNCW Recycling would report the net profits
of the gifted commodity, allowing the originator to leverage the possible tax advantages and marketing
opportunities. We would solicit business close to campus, initially, to gauge the market and maximize
the ecological impact. If volumes were present to meet or surpass our processing capacity, then
Recycling would develop a waiting list, and, as capacity increased, take new donors on a first-come-first-
serve basis. While we can pilot this program at our existing facilities, it will be difficult to expand or
maximize this program without developing a new facility.
UNCW Recycling’s E-Cycle program also offers revenue growth potential and, importantly, the ability to
provide a much needed public service. According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), in
2008, Americans owned approximately 24 electronic products per household. The Environmental
Protection Agency estimated that 438 million electronic products were sold in 2009 which represented a
doubling of sales from 1997, driven by a nine-fold increase in mobile device sales. Further, of the 2.37
million tons of electronics that reached end-of-life only 25% were being recycled.
Growth and Market Analysis
Based on our analysis of the waste stream in 2011, which was the most successful year, Recycling was
only diverting roughly 30% of the current waste stream from the landfill. Based on the historic data over
the past 5 years, Recycling has generally shown an annual growth of around 3%. This rate of growth
occurred before a reasonable market for these commodities could be established and there was little
incentive to grow this program. While not everything in the remaining waste stream may be currently
recyclable commodities, there is still room for significant growth through consumer education and
efficiencies in resource capture. Just this past year, UNCW Facilities implemented a program in which
they reduced the size of office garbage cans and provided larger recycle containers in three
administrative and five academic buildings. The net effect was that recycling output from those
buildings nearly doubled. The full rollout of this program is scheduled to be completed by mid-summer
2012. As part of this program, janitorial staff will be reduced by encouraging recycling, cutting back on
service by limiting the number of weekly office cleanings, and by office occupants being responsible for
transporting their recycling from their offices to collection points within the buildings. This program
reduces the need for, and the cost associated with, janitorial staffing, but will cause some portion of the
workload to be transferred to the Recycling staff. Additionally, due to its emphasis on recycling, the
expansion of this program is expected to create a significant uptick in recyclables captured from
university buildings.
UNCW has been working with Aramark to divert cardboard for several years. Although the cardboard
has been removed from the waste stream, Waste Industries still collected fees for both disposal and
resell of this cardboard. UNCW Recycling was just awarded a matching grant in February 2012 from the
North Carolina Department of Natural Resources to purchase cardboard receptacles to allow us, in
cooperation with our food service partner Aramark, to replace Waste Industries and capture this
estimated 200 tons of cardboard annually, providing an additional estimated $29,000 in gross revenue
and cost reduction from unrealized disposal fees.
Given the environment of increasing interest in sustainability, improved methods of capture, changes
in janitorial support, new streams such as E-Waste, and overall growth in the university, UNCW recycling
anticipates growth greater than the approximately 3% annual historical rate in traditional recyclable
commodities.
Projected Gross Revenues UNCW Recycling Fiscal 2012-2013
Commodity
Estimated
Tons/Month
Market Rate
per Ton Gross Revenue
Est. disposal
Savings @
$60/Ton
Gross
Revenue &
Savings
Paper 11.00 $80.00 $880.00 $660.00
Cardboard 4.23 $85.00 $359.55 $253.80
Cardboard Aramark 16.70 $85.00 $1,419.50 $1,002.00
Plastic baled 0.50 $100.00 $50.00 $30.00
Aluminum 0.44 $1,000.00 $440.00 $26.40
State Surplus 1.00 $60.00
Computer equipment 0.30 $280.00 $79.80 $18.00
Scrap Metal 1.70 $220.00 $355.30 $102.00
Total Month $3,584.15 $2,152.20 $5,736.35
Total Year $43,009.80 $25,826.40 $68,836.20
21.3
26.3
18.6
29.0
32.2
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011
Percent of waste recycled or removed from the waste stream
Currently, Aramark’s cardboard is still being disposed of by Waste Industries, but UNCW Recycling hopes
to completely capture that stream by 2013. Otherwise, all recycled commodities, except batteries
which are captured by campus safety, should be captured by UNCW recycling. Offsite disposal of
cardboard consists of Waste Industries and several smaller haulers and recycling companies including
Coastal Ladies Carting, Go Eco Disposal, Green Coast Recycling, which all offer disposal as a paid service.
We believe a cardboard donation model could capture a significant revenue stream by allowing
companies to not only reduce their costs but to leverage the marketing and tax advantages this method
provides.
Electronic recycling in the community is limited but improving. On April 27, 2012 the city of Wilmington
started an electronics recycling program for individuals on Wednesdays between 9AM and 2PM only at
the Landfill location, which is approximately 22 miles from the campus, and is limited to four items per
week. Staples started a recycling program in April of 2012, joining Best Buy as one of the local
businesses offering free electronics recycling. There are also private sector resale and donation options
for some electronics, but this is generally limited to newer electronics which still retain usability and
value. Eventually all electronics will reach end-of-life and need to be recycled. Offering this service to
the university community offers a local convenience and opportunity for our faculty, staff, and students
to responsibly and legally dispose of these items and allows the university to capture this commodity for
resale. UNCW recycling would like, at some point in the future, to provide this service to the
surrounding community. The recycling program still needs time to develop and analyze the impact of
the on-campus program to help estimate the impact on staffing, process, and facilities prior to
undertaking such an expansion. It is our belief that the price achievable for these commodities will
increase slowly over time as the market and infrastructure for recycled materials expands and as
retrieving raw materials from the environment faces increasingly negative public opinion and more
stringent environmental regulation.
Annual Projected Gross Growth Sales and Disposal Cost Reduction
Years 3.00% 3.50% 4.00% 4.50% 5.00% 5.50%
2013-2014 $70,901.29 $71,245.47 $71,589.65 $71,933.83 $72,278.01 $72,622.19
2015-2016 $73,028.32 $73,739.06 $74,453.23 $75,170.85 $75,891.91 $76,616.41
2016-2017 $75,219.17 $76,319.93 $77,431.36 $78,553.54 $79,686.51 $80,830.31
2017-2018 $77,475.75 $78,991.12 $80,528.62 $82,088.45 $83,670.83 $85,275.98
While UNCW Recycling seeks to monetize sales on recyclables, its primary mission is to capture for
reuse. Some commodities, such as glass and CRT televisions and monitors, which are captured as part of
the recycling program, do not produce positive revenue. Due to the still limited markets, their weight,
and the distances required to transport to market, there is no current opportunity to achieve profit from
the collection and recycling of these materials. The recycling program incurs some incidental cost by
processing and transporting these items. Recycling these items however does provide value by reducing
disposal costs and eliminating the items from the waste stream.
UNCW Recycling Growth and Future
UNCW Recycling is continually looking for ways to reduce waste sustainably. With a large amount of
food waste generated by multiple food venues and yard waste generated by campus landscaping, there
are many exciting opportunities for reusing and reducing UNCW’s organic waste. Examples of
technologies for consideration would include in-vessel composting to turn waste into valuable compost,
vermicomposting using worms to speed up composting which has the potential to produce valuable
castings and compost, anaerobic digestion to produce bio fertilizer and methane for power generation,
and gasification using bio-fuel reactors that elementally breaks down waste to produce syngas for
carbon neutral electricity generation. UNCW Recycling would like to become a cross-discipline learning
laboratory for the university and partner in research and development for these types of technologies.
Instructional Opportunities
While there are opportunities for education within the existing framework of recycling, especially in
business development and marketing of programs such as the aforementioned cardboard gift program,
we believe there is massive potential for cross-disciplinary learning in funding, developing, designing,
constructing, operating, and building sustainable businesses around technologies for organic waste
disposal. Vermicomposting has little or no mid- to large-scale development in this country and
technologies such as composting, anaerobic digestion, and gasification are all in their infancies in
regards to their application to the reuse and reduction of waste. UNCW has a massive resource in
experts with knowledge and vision along with student energy and enthusiasm which could be harnessed
to develop these types of technologies. Partnerships with Cape Fear Community College could be
developed to provide cross-pollination of ideas and to help provide engineering and hands-on
construction to develop these technologies from ground up, small-scale proof-of-concept to larger-scale
operating models. UNCW Recycling sees this as an opportunity to be a living laboratory to use, develop,
and learn about these types of solutions, providing our students with invaluable first-hand knowledge in
cutting-edge green and sustainable industries.
Alternative Funding Opportunities
UNCW Recycling is working with the Office of Research Services to identify future grant funding
opportunities in recycling, carbon reduction, and renewable energy. Recycling is actively involved in
developing ongoing funding models for sustainable initiatives through the implementation of the Green
Initiative fund. The future capture and use of organic waste offers the opportunity to develop and sell
carbon offsets, and any power generation realized by using organic waste could also generate income
from Renewable Energy Certificates.
Existing Recycling Facilities
UNCW Recycling’s current location
Recycling’s current storage and processing operations are housed in a shed which is part of the
warehouse complex. This facility is located inside a fence and is only accessible from 8AM to 5PM
Monday through Friday.
Recycling Depot Location Options
UNCW Recycling would like to offer three sites for consideration for locating a new recycling facility and
depot.
Site A offers the ability to include green buffers on all sides of the site. It has public access for
community access via Rose Avenue, but large trucks would have to traverse the campus to reach this
site. This site would keep Recycling as part of the contiguous campus.
Site B offers reasonable buffering from west and north abutting residential areas. Since the site is not
part of the contiguous campus, it falls into a separate city zone. The site is zoned Regional Business
Conditional use (RB-CD) which does not by Right explicitly permit recycling facilities. Placing the facility
and depot there may require a special use permit. This site would provide superior access for large
transport trucks and the community via South College Road, keeping that traffic off campus but would
require university recycling trucks to cross South College as part of their on-campus collection process.
Site C offers advantages of site A and site B by having excellent access from South College Road while
remaining on the contiguous campus property. Concerns include the close proximity to the existing
retention pond and the general location in regards to other development cited on the University Master
Plan.
Phase 1: Site Selection and Designation
In phase 1, a roughly 2 acre site would be designated as the home for a new recycling facility and depot.
Phase 2: Design and Planning
Phase 2 would involve achieving funding to design a publicly accessible depot and processing facility to
efficiently process, bale, and ship captured recyclables. This process would involve site visits to other
universities and private concerns to gain understanding of successful processes. Also, this process
would involve planning for infrastructure to support current and future planned operations. The initial
facility footprint is expected to be contained in less than an acre. The remaining area would also be
encompassed in the plan in anticipation of future uses. It is anticipated that planning will require
approximately $35,000.
Phase 3: Construction
Phase 3 includes construction of a publicly accessible drop-off/receiving depot, processing facilities, and
offices for the recycling program along with possible multiuse space for future use as a multidisciplinary
instruction and laboratory area. It is Recycling’s intent to use green building methods with passive and
active solar to be as self-sustainable as possible. It is also intended that infrastructure will be installed
for future waste reduction enterprises.
Phase 4: Move-in and Operation
Phase 4 would involve the moving of equipment and personnel and transition of operations from the
existing location to the new site.
Outcomes and Assessment
UNCW Recycling expects growth in material capture on-campus to exceed 3% year-to-year historical
growth over the next 5 years. At some point, over the next few years, with better programs, access,
education, and engagement we hope to reach the point where we capture all the currently recyclable
commodities. At that point, growth in commodity capture will be limited by growth in the university.
This would be a great success, but would not address our greater ambitions for expansion of
reclamation and reuse from the waste stream and community engagement. Our hope is to have
facilities and space to explore methods of engaging the university and community more directly with
better access for e-waste and cardboard. Recycling sees these types of programs as the areas for growth
that can develop into a sustainable business of the university. With the new depot and processing area,
we expect to expand and develop these and other near term programs while maintaining a limited staff.
Growing and developing long term projects for organic waste reduction cannot take place in the
confines of the existing facilities. The success of this project in the short term can be determined by
continued reduction in waste and associated costs, increase in revenues from increased sale of collected
materials, and limited growth in staff resources. Further and longer term success can be judged by the
development of learning opportunities, partnerships, and community engagement.
Conclusion
UNCW has a commitment to the public to develop and disseminate knowledge, which is its primary
mission, but also provide leadership by protecting the resources of the people both natural and
financial. We have been challenged by our chancellor to continue to expand exploration and learning in
the face of shrinking governmental support and rising costs. He has also encouraged us to find ways to
generate revenue, preserve the environment, and engage with students and the community. UNCW
Recycling has the opportunity to meet the Chancellor’s challenges and help UNCW fulfill its commitment
to the public. To fully realize that potential, Recycling must be able to expand and must have a larger,
well-designed facility.