Students, Employees Sort Trash for Audit

Yesterday morning at 9 a.m., on their only day off between Columbus Day and Thanksgiving, 10 Harvard students and maintenance employees met to inspect one of Harvard's most abundant products- trash.

Protected by dust masks and rubber gloves, these workers opened 31 trash bags and meticulously sorted the refuse they found inside. This sorting was part of Harvard's second annual trash audit, aimed at finding out how much of what Harvard students throw away could be recycled.

"We were trying to find out exactly what was in that trash," said Kunal Merchant, co-chair of the Environmental Action Committee's (EAC) recycling committee, which provided student sorters.

The trash under consideration had been selected randomly from three Houses and two first-year dormitories. In addition to the EAC students, Facilities Maintenance Operations (FMO) workers were also involved.

The trash was divided into six separate categories: paper products, containers (bottles and cans), corrugated cardboard, clothing, non-recyclables that can be composted and non-recyclable non-compostables.

The trash in each category was then weighed.

Last year's inaugural trash audit found over 50 percent of things thrown away were potentially recyclable, according to Harvard's Supervisor of Waste Management Robert M. Gogan, who organized the audits.

The data from this year's trash audit has not been compiled yet, but the auditors have already learned a few interesting things from their efforts.

Peter Platt, co-chair of the recycling committee, said that, "one half of the waste we find is paper."

Gogan said he believes students don't recycle as much as they could because it's a "matter of convenience."

He said that, to combat this problem, he wants to increase the number of recycling receptacles on campus.

Platt, Merchant and Gogan said they would also like to distribute small desktop boxes to hold recyclable paper waste.

This program is copied from colleges like the University of Massachusetts and the University of North Carolina, which already have waste audits.

Gogan says that although Harvard recycles a higher percentage of its trash than Yale or Boston University, others such as Cornell recycle much more.

Gogan said Harvard must accept that improvement will only come gradually. The University should be "content with a trend and not expect a stunning quick success because we're doing about as well as we can."

The groups are also considering a spring audit. Merchant said he is interested to see if the types of waste "vary seasonally."

Most of the student workers had worked last year's audit, Platt said, so they were used to working with such an unusual subject.

"We try to have fun," said Platt, laughing.