These are the problems we are trying to solve.” “Trash and landfills directly affect humanity. “We cover sustainability issues, landfills, landfill alternatives, recycling, composting and the economics and politics of trash,” she said. The class centers on trash and what happens to it once it is thrown out, according to Ivey-Burden. “How much can I recycle? Do I get my groceries in paper or plastic or carry them myself? What can I do without?” “How much can I reduce to have a smaller impact on the environment,” he said. Matt Dean of Charlottesville, a third-year civil engineering student, said the exercise has him thinking about his own lifestyle. Some of the trash was simpler to tag: bags of bagels and packages of out-of-date bacon, an upholstered metal office chair with one broken wheel, metal plumbing pipes, scraps of treated lumber and a half-eaten tin of sardines. The plastic lid is recyclable the coffee is compostable but the paper cup, because of the lining, has to go to the landfill, according to Beale. Virginia university smart trash can full#“You have combined material, such as a disposable coffee cup, which is lined with a thin coating and plastic lid that is half full of coffee, which is organic,” said Mary-Michael Robertson, a third-year civil engineering student from Hurt. Bruce “Sonny” Beale, the recycling program superintendent for the University, and Jesse Warren, sustainability program manager for buildings and operations, assisted the students in the trash diversion, noting which things went into which category – which was not always easy. The students stood on a bright blue tarpaulin laid out on the pavement next to the 6-cubic-yard dumpster near the Thornton and Olsson loading docks, surrounded by plastic bags held upright by metal frames, each one marked for a purpose, such as “recycling” or “composting” or “landfilling.” The students pulled trash out of the dumpster and separated it into the appropriate categories. Virginia university smart trash can how to#“If they find out what is in the trash, they can figure out how to divert it,” she said. Lindsay Ivey-Burden, senior research associate and civil engineering instructor, said the students enrolled in her course take an in-depth look at where garbage goes once it is thrown away. The University’s Office for Sustainability is working on several action plans within the University’s overall Sustainability Plan, which also includes plans to deal with the University’s nitrogen footprint and water consumption. The students are studying the trash, not just for a civil engineering course, “Solid Waste Management,” but also to contribute to the University’s materials and waste action plan. (All of them also wore sky-blue safety gloves and eye protection.) Nineteen University of Virginia engineering students, many of them wearing white plastic jump suits to protect their clothes, pored through translucent trash bags behind Thornton and Olsson halls last week, segregating the trash from three academic buildings – Thornton, Olsson and Rice halls. It’s known as the “Trash Class,” and the students are deep in it.
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