Dumpster dive raises waste awareness at MCC
Parisa Amini
The Recycling and Sustainability Department on campus hosted its fourth annual Dumpster Dive on Nov. 13.
Suzi Dodt, environmental sustainability coordinator, helped organize and run this year’s event.
The goal was to bring awareness to the amount of waste that is produced every day at MCC, by collecting the trash around campus during a 24-hour period.
During one day, Mesa Community College collected 482 bags of trash, but if more people recycled items, that number would have dropped to fewer than 75.
From 5 a.m. Nov. 12 through 5 a.m. Nov. 13, the trash was collected and brought to the grassy area near the clock tower.
At 8 a.m. Nov. 13, volunteers opened the bags of trash and began to sort the items into several groups including, food waste, liquid waste, bottles, and paper.
Volunteers sorted through the trash and were able to determine how much was actual trash, versus what items could have been recycled.
The event was kept eco-friendly. Invitations and planning were done on the computer to save paper, and recyclable cardboard was used as the sorting surface. Instead of giving the volunteers bottled water, everyone was given a reusable bottle and free campus filtered water was available.
The results were not ideal.
MCC produced more than 200 pounds of food waste, 20 gallons of liquid waste, over 10,000 pieces of paper, and 3,000 cups, bottles, and cans thrown away.
The food wastes became chicken food, while the liquid waste went to the plants on campus.
Bottles were recycled normally while their lids were donated to the cosmetics company Aveda. They recycle the lids and use them as packaging for their products.
Throughout the four-hour event, 236 people helped to sort out the bags and separate the items inside.
Nichole McCalla, 17, an MCC freshman, thought people should make more of an effort to recycle on campus.
“People are being stupid,” McCalla said.
At MCC, there is a recycle bin next to almost every trash can.
“Students have a choice to make at MCC every time they go to throw something away,” Dodt said.
“It’s all generated by us and it affects all of us in the end.”
If the college eliminates some of the waste, the campus could both save and make money.
“It’s not just food waste, it’s also a waste of money,” Dodt said.
Recycled items are picked up from the campus at no cost, but there is a fee to remove trash. MCC also makes money on the paper it recycles.
The recycling facilities across Arizona sort through everything they receive to verify if it can be processed.
“Anything with the recycle symbol on it can be recycled somewhere,” Dodt said. “When something is thrown away, it goes somewhere else. It doesn’t disappear.”
The department is planning to host similar events to raise awareness on campus. Its goal is to educate as many people as possible to the ways in which the community can help be more “green.”
“If we can make one more person aware, then they’ll tell another person and so on,” Dodt said. “It’s a domino effect.
