Waste Prevention::

 The Waste Prevention Campaign seeks to help everyone understand their relationship with their waste. It has been made so easy to toss anything and everything into waste receptacles that now our trash bins are treated like black holes. In order to help others understand that landfills are finite spaces which do not have the capacity to store just any material, we seek to educate the student body on where their waste goes and how to properly divert waste from the landfill. 
   
 Additionally, Waste Prevention works with the Summer Orientation in regards to the Sustainable Programming.  The Student Environmental Center has been collaborating with the orientations office for the past 4 years to ensure each session is a “zero-waste” event, the attendees are served an organic and mostly locally grown lunch as well as distribute re-usable tote bags to each incoming student. 
Current Initiatives::

Waste Prevention is currently working on the following projects:
- Slugware: Providing a set of reusable tableware for the Student Environmental Center as well as the Education for Sustainable Living Program. This set of table ware will divert a significant amount of one-time use plates/knives/forks/spoons/cups/bowls at the events both these organizations often hold. 

Waste Prevention has completed the following past projects:
- Working with CRE at Redwood Grove apartments to spread Graduate Student housing compost system to the 118 Redwood Grove Apartments
-  A hard copy document with guidelines on how to hold a Zero Waste Event

Refuse, re-use, recycle:
  • Refuse conspicuous consumption and the urge to always purchase new goods. There is almost always an alternative to buying a new product from a manufacturer or retailer.
  • Re-use your things until they are beyond use. When you are done using your stuff, give it to someone else who can use it or donate it. If all else fails…
  • Take the little bit of extra time to recycle your things properly. If you are not sure how to recycle, reach out to university or municipal resources. There are many outlets for information on how to properly dispose of anything from packaging materials to batteries and everything in between. 
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Check out these signs posted around campus to better understand what is allowed into our recycling facilities
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OPERS FALL FEST was ZERO WASTE!
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At the Santa Cruz Landfill
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Waste Prevention and Zero waste Team took a trip to the Landfill!

Resources::

Get Involved::

We are always looking for innovative ways to make events more sustainable, so if green programming and zero-waste event planning interests you, don’t hesitate to contact Darya Soofi (dsoofi@ucsc.edu) or stop by at one of our campaign meetings (Kresge I- lounge, Wednesdays 12:30pm-1:30pm)

Meet our new interns!!
- Kevin Green, third year Econ/Envs major
- Yukari Shichishima, fourth year Envs major
-Malik Stead, fourth year ENVs/econ major
- Joe Sherman-Williams, third year Literature/jewish studies major

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This Waste Buffet is composed of only a portion of the food that was thrown away during this lunch period....CrAzY!
         Our campaign has worked with Dining Services to perform dining hall waste audits. This is where we collect the food thrown away throughout a 1 hour period, while outreaching and educating students on Food Waste. During the audit, we display a "waste buffet" of full plates of food that was thrown away during that 1 hour collection period in order to educate students on the waste stream they all participate in.  Our campaign can coordinate your involvement in these efforts as well.
  • In the past waste audits, we have found that for a 2-hour lunch period in college 9/10 and Crown/Merrill Dining Halls, 60-100 pounds of food waste is tossed! 
  • Although we do have a compost system set up, if we weren’t wasting roughly 10% of our food to begin with, we wouldn’t have the need to truck compost off our campus by the ton everyday (and using diesel.) 
  • Dining services is always looking for volunteers to work 2 hour shifts in scraping plates and tabling with the results of the weigh in various dining halls throughout the year. 
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Student Environmental Center interns collecting Food/liquid/napkin waste at the Dining hall Audit