Jennifer L. Williams
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March 30, 2022
William & Mary has received a Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award for its waste reduction work, according to an announcement made March 29 at the 32ndAnnual Environment Virginia Symposium at Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia.
W&M’s award was in the category of Commonwealth Application, which recognizes entities of the Commonwealth of Virginia for exemplary implementation of a waste reduction plan. The university’s efforts to divert single-use plastics and food waste away from landfills by adopting alternative materials and campus-wide composting were the focus of its award application.
The Governor’s Environmental Excellence Awards recognize successful and innovative efforts that improve Virginia’s environment, according to its website. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Conservation and Recreation administer the awards program annually.
“It is a testament to our W&M Dining team and their commitment to sustainability, even during a pandemic, to receive such an award and recognition from our governor,” said Cindy Glavas, W&M executive director of auxiliary services and administrator for the university’s contract with Sodexo for dining services.
Steve Moyer, operations manager at Commons Dining Hall, serves as advisor for W&M’s dining sustainability interns, who manage the composting program.
“Waste reduction is not just one person or one location, rather a culture that I am glad to be a part of,” Moyer said.
Waste diversion from landfills is part of the university’s Climate Action Roadmap, which guides sustainability efforts on campus.
“Dining Services has been a longstanding champion of sustainability efforts at W&M,” said W&M Director of Sustainability Calandra Waters Lake. “As the university makes progress toward its waste reduction goals, recognition of their efforts to reduce single-use plastic and food waste is well deserved.”
The university already was eliminating single-use plastics in dining halls prior to last year’s implementation of governor’s Executive Order 77, which set specific dates for items to be phased out at state institutions.
“Key to the university’s waste reduction efforts has been significant progress made in dining services prior to COVID, including the dining halls discontinuing the distribution of single-use plastics, (implementing) reusable to-go containers and, most importantly, the composting program institutionalized in 2010,” according to the university’s award application. “The existence of these efforts and programs has helped streamline the EO 77 process and progress, particularly of cessation items.”
W&M began its composting program in 2010 in all campus dining rooms. It collects pre-consumer food waste, such as food preparation, post-consumer foodstuffs and compostable foodware. Prior to COVID, drop-off bins were strategically placed on campus. However, they have been greatly expanded over the past two years to accommodate outdoor eating and the distribution of compostable items with to-go meals.
There are 10 locations where compost bins can be found on campus. The university has a contract with Waverly’s industrial facility in Virginia to process the compostable material. Compost credits are accrued and used to have compost delivered to locations such as the university’s campus garden and a local farm partnership.
In 2020, W&M’s composting program placed second in the nation for a university of its size in the annual Race to Campus Zero Waste, previously RecycleMania, competition. According to the award application the university diverts food and compostable foods from its waste stream so that the waste dumpsters are not as often emptied and the amount of waste services is reduced.