Written by Gabriele Hibbitts

Waste aversion is a feat that sometimes feels unattainable, especially on a college campus. Plates filled with uneaten food sit on the moving conveyor belt in dining halls. Trash bags spill out of the dumpsters near residence halls. Plastic ware and compostable containers, items that could be repurposed, fill the trash cans in buildings across campus. Bits and pieces of trash lay near the gutters nearby. Waste, an unavoidable part of life, is everywhere.

Colorado State University has a reputation for being highly sustainable. Faculty, staff, and students are dedicated to making campus a more environmentally friendly place, and many of the university’s presidents have put tremendous effort towards making the school more sustainable within the past decade. The university has even received recognition for such efforts through the American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education and has received a STARS platinum rating. Despite all that CSU has accomplished, there is still a large disconnect between students and knowledge of living sustainably. Students who work on making campus more eco-friendly have seen this firsthand.

Sorting through Waste

Freshman Link Warren works for the Eco Leader program on campus, an organization dedicated to peer education on environmentalism, and sees how many students are ignorant of proper waste sorting methods.

“I’ve been standing outside helping people sort through their waste for weeks now, and it is the most discouraging thing I’ve had to do.”

Seeing mounds of recyclable plastic cups and metal cans in the trash is a common sight in many central buildings on campus, such as the library or the LSC. Heaps of wadded-up paper towels in bathrooms sit in the trash instead of the designated compost bins.

Link was seen holding an oat milk chai latte in an Ecoware cup. Ecoware products are all around campus, yet so many are unaware that they are made of compostable materials. As a result, many compostable cups, containers, and utensils are being tossed in the landfill when they could be repurposed.

Peter Backlund, the associate director of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability, referred to this phenomenon as “whiff recycling.” Such misuse of composting and recycling bins inevitably drives up the costs, making them less economical.

Systematic Roadblocks

Awareness is not the only issue. Funding and support from higher authority are preventing many eco leaders from implementing their innovations across campus.

“There are systemic roadblocks that are preventing us from getting things done,” said Warren.

To persuade authorities to invest in more composting bins, Link created a survey to gather statistics on students regarding where they put their waste. The survey clearly illustrated that a vast number of students are not sorting properly.  While this is partially due to a lack of education on waste sorting, a lack of composting bins also largely contributes to this issue.

Warren is attempting to improve the waste aversion rate on campus, one building at a time, starting with Morgan Library. Currently, Morgan’s Grind, a coffee shop located within the library, uses Ecoware products like many other businesses on campus. However, there is only a trashcan at the exit, which is also the case for many other buildings on campus.

“The whole reason I’m doing any of this is because I was sitting in the chemistry building and there wasn’t a place for me to put my coffee cup. I didn’t want to put it in the wrong place,” Warren said.

While funding is crucial, Link believes that students should become more educated on composting before funding takes place, as there have been many instances where composting bins are funded but misused. A combination of strong financial support and impactful outreach amongst students would have a tremendous effect.

Despite all of CSU’s achievements, the school’s waste aversion rate is only 38% according to Warren. While this could partially be because CSU is a large state school—thus the amount of waste generated is larger than in smaller schools— this number shows that there is still a lot of room for improvement. From the Eco-Leaders’ perspective, an increase in follow-through among students could offset a lot of environmental harm generated from waste.

“I think environmentalism as a whole is a thing that our generation cares about, but I don’t think our generation values thoroughness super highly,” Warren said.

What We’ve Done Right

Even though CSU has room for sustainability improvement, Backlund thinks that the university is off to a very strong start. Along with strong leadership in areas such as the Eco Leaders program, the university provides multiple educational pathways for those interested in sustainability. The Warner College of Natural Resources and the School of Global Environmental Sustainability have paved the way for a more environmentally conscious future for students.

Backlund is very proud of the accolades CSU has accumulated over the years and attributes these accomplishments to the many motivated individuals within the CSU community.

“The student body is very environmentally committed and motivated. I see it in our students. But at the same time, the faculty is very motivated as well.”

Additionally, sustainability experts highlight the importance of recognizing what has been achieved thus far. After all, there are many positive changes taking place.

Within the Student Sustainability Center, students can be seen planting colorful flower beds to make campus more pollinator-friendly, or systematically sorting through recycling bins by the residence halls.

Graduate groups can be found enthusiastically engaging with younger students and giving inspiring guest talks within Poudre Valley School District.

Within the school of Global Environmental Sustainability, research on climate change and loss of biodiversity takes place, and students are learning how to best reduce harm and preserve environmental goods and services that we all depend on.

Additionally, a CSU program called AgNext is tackling many environmental concerns that are presented by animal agriculture, while providing education on the issue to undergraduate and graduate students.

Dr. Sara Place, an associate professor of Feedlot Systems and one of the leaders of the AgNext program said, “AgNext faculty members teach a variety of topics from cattle management and nutrition, to understanding how methane emissions are formed within ruminant’s stomachs and how carbon markets may affect animal agriculture.”

Recently, AgNext has received a $1 million grant from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to investigate full beef life cycle methane emissions and greenhouse gas mitigation opportunities.

When climate change, sustainability, and consumerism are talked about, it is very common for many to highlight the issues that haven’t been solved. However, emphasizing what has been accomplished thus far, and pushing forward with a positive outlook is equally as important.

“It’s easy to focus on everything that has gone wrong, but I think it’s important to recognize all the things we’ve done right with environmental protection,” said Backlund.

The way Backlund sees it, the power that students hold is one of the fundamental forces that can be used to implement sustainability and combat climate change.

“The idealism of students is definitely something important for them to hold on to,” He said.

If you’re interested in getting involved in student sustainability on campus, follow the Student Sustainability Center on Instagram and subscribe to the Green Bulletin email list to stay updated on the latest events.

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