Office Supply Swap is a staple of sustainability at Mason

Lauren Reuscher — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 13:22:38 +0000

Office Supply Swap is a staple of sustainability at Mason Lauren Reuscher Thu, 04/18/2024 - 09:22

They say one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. On a college campus, that treasure could be a stack of three-ring binders or sticky notes collecting dust in the office supply closet.

The Office Supply Swap gives new use to unneeded supplies, conserving resources and supporting Mason's zero waste goals. Photo by Getty

Someone else might need those supplies—and need them urgently. Jessica Adams, assistant director of knowledge management for fiscal learning and engagement at ��AV, remembers when a former colleague approached her with a last-minute purchasing crisis. The department was hosting a conference and organizers realized the day before that they needed additional supplies.

The commonwealth’s supply vendor policies are not always conducive to last-minute purchases, according to Adams. “I offered what advice I could from my place in Fiscal Services and asked if she checked with other offices to see what supplies they had available,” Adams said.

This last-minute request sparked an idea that had been on Adams’ mind for quite some time: Mason needed an office supply exchange, where departments could quickly and easily seek out or repurpose extra or unused supplies.

Adams shared the idea with her colleagues on the Staff Senate, and it took off from there. The Office Supply Swap launched on Microsoft Teams in Spring 2023, thanks to the efforts of the senate and University Sustainability.

April Lopez, part of the Staff Senate’s Environmental Justice and Sustainability Committee, took the lead in creating the online community. Lopez has worked as an administrative assistant at Mason since 2019 in the Division of Special Education and disAbility Research in the College of Education and Human Development.

“We realized that with new collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and an increase in familiarity with community groups like Buy Nothing, we could get this going with very minimal input and no additional storage space requirements,” Lopez said.

The supply swap is part of the larger Greener Mason Community on Microsoft Teams, where the Mason Nation can share ideas and collaborate on topics related to sustainability. Illustration by Getty

The supply swap channel is open to all Mason faculty and staff and sits within the larger Greener Mason Community on Teams, which covers a range of sustainability topics at Mason: recycling, plastics reduction, living landscape, and even environment and climate-related reading and listening recommendations. The group offers a place for the Mason Nation to connect and learn.

The rules for the Office Supply Swap are simple: faculty and staff post unneeded items on the Teams channel. If another department needs the items, they can comment and arrange pickup. If someone needs an item, they can ask if anyone has a surplus. All items must remain university property—personal items and personal use of items are not allowed. Technology and furniture items should not be offered in the swap; they should go through existing surplus procedures.

The supply exchange echoes one of Mason’s core values: We are careful stewards.

“There are financial savings in not buying new when there are things already at the university that can be reused,” Lopez said. Repurposing and reallocating supplies also supports Mason’s zero waste goals.

Adams is thrilled that the supply swap is thriving. “The idea needed to get to the right people, at the right time,” Adams said. “April Lopez is the real hero with execution. She has been the biggest catalyst in bringing the Greener Mason Community to life and has built it into what it is today.”

Lopez hopes that the project helps people recognize that small actions support sustainability at Mason.

“I hope that the Office Supply Swap helps us recognize the abundance we already have, even if we’re just talking about paperclips, three-ring binders, and suspension files,” Lopez said. “In our cabinets and desk drawers, we already have items that the university could use for years to come.”

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Don’t trash it, compost it: Mason Facilities adds 23 Bigbelly zero waste stations to campuses

Lauren Reuscher — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 18:38:11 +0000

Don’t trash it, compost it: Mason Facilities adds 23 Bigbelly zero waste stations to campuses Lauren Reuscher Thu, 02/15/2024 - 13:38

��AV Facilities has installed 23 Bigbelly zero waste stations on the Fairfax and Mason Square campuses. These solar-powered stations support Mason’s recycling and composting goals through their user-friendly design, technology upgrades, and capacity-based alerts.

Five of the new Bigbelly stations on the Fairfax Campus include solar-powered, waste compacting compost bins at outdoor patio sites. Expanded composting access is part of a long-term strategy to improve Mason’s waste diversion rate—the amount of waste composted, recycled, repurposed, or otherwise diverted away from trash.

Bigbelly zero waste stations support Mason's recycling and composting goals. Photo by Mason Facilities

The Bigbelly zero waste stations expand the waste collection benefits achieved through Mason’s industrial composting pilot. Launched in August 2022, the composting pilot included the installation of Mason’s first indoor zero waste station in the Starbucks located in Northern Neck on the Fairfax Campus. The project was funded by University Sustainability's Patriot Green Fund (PGF). A previous PGF grant supported the installation of Bigbelly’s smart-waste management system at the patio outside the Starbucks.

Capacity alerts from Bigbelly solar zero waste stations increase the efficiency of operations for recycling and housekeeping staff, who are automatically alerted when the stations need to be emptied.

“Thanks to the daily efforts of Mason Dining and Facilities recycling staff, Mason’s first sitewide composting pilot was able to consistently divert clean compost away from trash while informing best practices for adding composting access at future campus locations,” said Colleen Regan, zero waste specialist with University Sustainability.

The solar powered stations send real-time alerts to Facilities and housekeeping staff when the bins need to be emptied. Photo by Mason Facilities

To successfully divert food scraps and other compostable items, the university must maintain a clean compost stream. Design changes were installed at waste stations to help reduce waste contamination. The Max-R zero waste station inside the on-campus Starbucks offers helpful design features like waste stream co-location, restrictive lid openings, and color-coded messaging. The station is made of more than 1,600 reclaimed milk jugs, supporting Mason’s post-consumer recycled purchasing goals and guidance.

The involvement of Mason Dining was crucial for the success of the industrial composting pilot. Mason Dining staff identified difficult-to-sort items, inventoried common contaminants during weekly audits, and piloted behavioral and educational interventions to support appropriate waste disposal.

"Bigbelly has a huge impact on our daily operations” said Kevin Brim, recycling and waste management supervisor with Facilities. “The stations' technology makes us more efficient in performing our duties. We’ve seen an immediate impact with environmental challenges like wildlife—[fewer] yellowjackets at the bin, [less] wind-blown litter—and the operational challenge of keeping up with Mason's growth and overall population day to day.”

Learn the best ways to sort your compost, recycling, and trash. Check out the Zero Waste Mason page and see the complete list of zero waste locations.