Emory University has a long way to go to reach its goal of diverting 95% of its construction and non-construction campus waste away from municipal landfills by 2025. According to Professor of German Studies and Linguistics Hiram Maxim, Goodr, the company that manages Emory’s waste, only diverts 51% of waste from landfills.
The 95% diversion goal comes from the Sustainability Visioning Committee's Sustainability Vision and Strategic Plan, which was adopted in 2016 and revised in 2020. The plan's introduction states the committee's “vision for Emory is to be a model of transformative practices and sustainable choices at every level.” Former University President Claire Sterk, who was provost at the time, and former Executive Vice President for Business and Administration Mike Mandl appointed the committee in 2014.
In an email to The Emory Wheel, Associate Vice President for Facilities Management David Forbes wrote that the COVID-19 pandemic “significantly impacted” the waste recycling industry. Forbes did not respond to whether the claim that 51% of waste ends up in landfills is accurate.
Maxim, who volunteers as a Zero Waste Ambassador in the Emory Office of Sustainability Initiatives (OSI), toured Emory’s recycling facility on Peavine Creek Drive last year and had an “eye-opening and very upsetting moment.”
“I learned that all of the post-consumer materials that were put in recycling bins or compost bins on campus … were going to landfill,” Maxim said.
Maxim said that Emory changed recycling vendors after the pandemic. Emory’s former vendor, Southeast Green Industries, sorted through Emory’s waste and diverted over 70% away from landfills in 2019 and 2020, according to OSI. Maxim said that Goodr has not been able to match this rate since taking over in 2021. Goodr did not respond to the Wheel’s request for comment by press time.
Part of the problem is that the Emory community does not sort their waste well enough, leading to a highly contaminated recycling and compost stream that vendors are unwilling to sort through, according to Maxim.
“Our on-campus behavior regarding the sorting of our waste by faculty, students and staff still is not exemplary,” Maxim said. “Vendors aren't necessarily eager to deal with that because of its state.”
The latest statistics on the OSI website show that in 2022, Emory had a 58% diversion rate. The earliest data shows that in 2015, 50% of waste was diverted, with the diversion rate increasing to 74.5% in 2020.
According to Maxim, Emory is searching for new vendors to sort through its waste. He added that Emory’s contract with Goodr ends January 2025.
Plastic Free Emory President Anisha Johnson (25C) works with the University to be more environmentally friendly, specifically on reducing single-use plastics on campus. However, Plastic Free Emory does not work on Emory’s 95% diversion goal. Johnson said that the University as a whole needs to do a better job educating people on how to sort their own trash.
“The waste education around campus could be a lot better, not necessarily just from OSI, but I think in [general], there's been this sort of herd mentality that Emory is not doing a good job on their waste management, and I feel like that is what leads a lot of people to not really think about how they're sorting their waste,” Johnson said.
Similarly, to help solve Emory’s contaminated waste issues, Outdoor Emory co-President Alex Valdivia (25C) believes that the University needs to do a better job of emphasizing the importance of every individual sorting their waste.
Valdivia, who works with OSI and hosts events promoting sustainability, said that he is “not super surprised” by Emory’s 51% diversion rate, given confusion around recycling and composting practices, but that it is “disappointing.” Valdivia said he believes Emory is attempting to be more environmentally friendly but needs to be more transparent.
“It's a tricky thing to do messaging-wise because it kind of has to be an admission of a system that was not great in the past and saying, ‘OK, we're actually going to revamp this,’” Valdivia said. “If they were really serious about having their waste stream go to the compost and recycling, they need to emphasize that.”
Despite the current numbers, Forbes stated in his email that the University is still committed to reaching a 95% diversion rate.
“We continue to look at innovation, technology and strategic partnerships to help us achieve this goal,” Forbes wrote.
