The Zero-Waste Team works on the front-end to ensure that Fort Lewis buys recycable products and works on the back-end to keep what we do waste out of the landfill through recycling and composting.  In 2007, the Zero-Waste team finished a waste audit that revealed 19% of what's in FLC's trash should be in a recycling bin and 19% could potentially be composted.  That means with more coordination and education FLC could reduce its waste stream by 40%!  The Environmental Center also partnered with Sodexho on a Trayless Tuesday campaign to reduce food waste in the cafeteria.  This summer, we have also been working with New Ice, Inc., a Durango-based company that produces compostable dishware from potato-starch. Click here to read more about the compostable dishware.

For 2008-09, zero-wasters will research the potential to recycled paperboard (e.g. cereal boxes) and will try to set-up a pilot recycling program in the residence halls.  We're also investigating the potential to set up a municipal composting program in La Plata County.  Find out more about our Earth Tub composter and what happens to your food when you compost it in the River Rock Cafe. 

(Zero-Waste Coordinator Brandon Hightower and Local Food Team Coordinator Zach Ray turn the composter)

Since its inception the Center has been a leader in reducing waste and advancing recycling in the region.  We grew from a paper recycling program organized by students in 1986, and has often the first to offer recycling of a particular type of material.  The EC was the first to offer recycling of plastics.  Next it was household batteries.  The City of Durango now collects both at drop-off locations around town.  Will paperboard be next?

Today, Fort Lewis’ Physical Plant Services does an excellent job maintaining the primary recycling program on campus, while the EC has moved on to finding new materials to recycle and new ways to reduce waste.  Go to the Fort Lewis College Waste Reduction web page to find out about recycling and waste reduction at Fort Lewis and in the larger Four Corners region.

The Environmental Center collects ink jet and laser jet cartridges. If you have a Hewlett-Packard laser jet cartridge, please bring it to the Environmental Center office with the return address label. If we cannot recycle your particular model of cartridge, we'll send it back to Hewlett-Packard for you. The only cartridges we know for sure we cannot recycle are Epson ink jets.

The EC no longer accepts batteries for recycling.  You can now drop off your batteries at one of several locations around town. Look for the plastic tubes with the green top at all local grocery stores, including Nature's Oasis and Durango Natural Foods, as well as at the Durango Public Library, the Courthouse, Office Depot, and Wal-Mart. Recycling batteries has never been so easy. Thank you to Durango Public Works for providing this important service.

The EC’s Zero-Waste Team also organizes an annual campus cleanup, a year-end, move-out collection program called Operation Dumpster Rescue, and offers education about how we can work together to make FLC a zero-waste campus.

For more information, links, and resources on waste reduction and recycling visit the Sustainability Resources portion of our website or the links page on the Waste Reduction website.