Cleanlink News September 9 2009
University of Iowa Focuses on Trash Management
According to The Daily Iowan, the University of Iowa will soon have a new trash-management system in its academic buildings: Faculty members will have to centralize their garbage disposing, and custodial staff will empty central bins once a month. The change comes in response to the promotion of a more sustainable campus and to recent budget cuts, said Dan Heater, the director of building and landscape services at UI Facilities Management. Heater is in the progress of implementing a new trash-management system, which generally aims to reduce waste across campus and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Faculty members will receive a recycling bin in their offices where they can discard items. They will be asked to drop their full trash and recycling bins in central collection bins located in every building.
“Because trash will be picked up less often, faculty are more likely to recycle in order for their trash bins to stay empty, longer,” Heater said.
The custodial staff will begin to collect from those bins once per month, as opposed to current practice of picking it up twice per month.
Through all the components of the new management system, custodial positions could potentially be eliminated. However, Heater said a natural attrition is more likely to happen than actual layoffs. That means some positions will essentially be phased out over time, Heater said.
One way Heater is hoping this attrition will take place is through the UI early retirement program, in which workers 57 years or older can have five years of paid medical and retirement benefits. Then the position will simply not be refilled.
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