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The University of British Columbia has an ambitious vision that includes fostering a ‘sustainable society’. A part of such a society is the production of Zero Waste, or 100% diversion of used materials. The University has made strategic moves, such as the hiring of Zero Waste and Water Engineer, Bud Fraser, to produce a Zero Waste Action Plan that will set the University on the path of Zero Waste by 2030. In order for the Zero Waste plan to be accepted, it needs sophisticated evidence-based modelling surrounding the waste predictions, greenhouse gas emissions and costs associated with a University wide shift. The overall waste production at UBC in the 2010-2011 Waste Audit revealed a total site recycling rate of 59%, with 43% operational waste diversion. Operational waste diversion targets are 70% by 2015 and 80% by 2020, before achieving Zero Waste by 2030. The team modeled expected waste by 2020, the expected greenhouse gases per diversion stream by 2020, and modeled expected costs by 2020. The modeling was done in Microsoft Excel for UBC waste and did not include construction and demolition waste. The model allowed manipulation of diversion rates for each building type for each stream. There were three buildings types considered: ancillary, tenant and core buildings. For diversion the following streams were considered: organics, mixed paper, returnable containers, cardboard, e-waste, construction materials (but not construction and demolition stream), as well as recyclables and non-recyclables. With these major modelling parameters in mind (amongst many others), a Zero Waste Case was produced considering 80% overall diversion by 2020. This case was compared with the Business as Usual case, and was compared to composting the organics in-house versus outsourcing to an industrial composter, such as Harvest Power. The results were as follows: In all three models produced, the total waste generated is expected to be 6,490 tonnes of operational waste per year In the business as usual case, diversion was expected to be maintained at 42% for operational waste. In the Zero Waste case, diversion increased to 77% (where 80% UBC Waste diversion was considered possible factoring in construction and demolition waste and total UBC waste) The Zero Waste model would save UBC 4,750 tonnes of CO2 equivalents from 2014-2020 The Net Present Value, using the Jaccard discount rate of 3.5%, and 2011 to 2020 time period, was found to be: o Lowest Cost - $3.82 Million for Zero Waste with outsourcing to an industrial composter o Medium Cost - $3.90 Million for Business as Usual Case Highest Cost - $4.37 Million for Zero Waste model with UBC in-house composting Major assumptions are as follows, further details of other assumptions are in the full report contained herein: Waste generation in kg per building type per m² per year was equivalent for each year Costs per tonne were fixed for the duration using 2011 costs (except increasing costs for disposal tipping fee) U.S. EPA 2006 based greenhouse gas emissions Assuming that waste generation increased with building development on campus and proportionally to the fixed waste generation rate (i.e. kg per m² per year per building type) Eight recommendations were made for UBC Policy: 1. Outsource Organics 2. Implement Sustainable Supply Chain Management 3. Implement Zero Waste Challenge Comparing Building-to-Building 4. Aspire to and Achieve Zero Waste by 2030 5. Communicate, Brand and Engage the entire UBC Community, get buy-in for a Zero Waste University 6. Our endorsement of the 10 Steps in the Preliminary ‘Zero Waste Action Plan Content Summary’ by Bud Fraser 7. Introduce an Environmental Management System to manage the Zero Waste Plan 8. Pursue Methods to Reduce Waste Generation per Facility, so it decreases over time and does not remain at the current waste generation rate, in further Zero Waste Planning Tool updates Further modeling is required to examine optimizations in greenhouse gases, costs and waste diversion. This is a preliminary assessment and provides an indication as to where UBC should look to invest time and resources to become Zero Waste by 2030. After phase I of the Zero Waste Action Plan is under way, a Phase II Zero Waste Action Plan will need to be created and implemented; this should be examined closer to the year 2020. In the meantime, the model and the Zero Waste Action Plan should act as a living document in the attainment of the 2015 and 2020 waste diversion goals, 70% and 80% respectively. Continuous updates will ensure success of the Zero Waste Targets, this is the intent of the model, to be continuously used and improved as the University strives for Zero Waste. The Zero Waste Action Plan, once ratified by the UBC Board of Governors, should be acted upon with urgency – 2015 is just around the corner. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.” |
