ASU Surplus Property has identified Zero Waste as an area that we believe can have a big impact on for ASU and the environment. Evaluating our trash tonnage over the past years led us to believe that we could make substantial contributions to this goal with new uses for discarded material. We evaluated various areas in the operation and found opportunities to reduce waste and increase revenue.
We now harvest as many varieties of metal from retired university property as possible. Chairs, tables and desks are made up of a lot of metal. We separate the metal from the wood and sell the metal at our auction to the highest bidder. The revenue covers the additional labor involved in the tear down and the profit is several times more than the cost of the labor.
Cardboard and paper coming into the department are now aggressively removed from the waste stream as well. These items reduce our trash tonnage and the captured materials are sold to local recycling companies.
ASU Surplus waste tonnage for January 1, 2007 through April 30, 2007 was 46.93 tons. Waste tonnage for the same period this year was 20.16 tons. This is a reduction in waste of 26.77 tons which equates to a 57% decrease. The savings in landfill fees was $1,873.63. Projecting these numbers for the year we come up with a total cost savings of $5,620.90 totaling 80.31 tons of material diverted from the landfill. These new recyclables are made up of metals; cardboard and paper to a lesser degree. A majority of the items removed from the waste stream are recycled with some being sold for reuse.
So remember, send your unwanted items to Surplus, we’ll sell it if we can, if not we’ll do everything we can to recycle it. Also, if you are looking for items for your department; filing cabinets, chairs, tables, etc, look to Surplus first for HUGE savings!
Kerry Suson
Property Manager