ACCESSIBILITY POLICY
A Quality Program of Associated Students

STEPS TO PLAN & EXECUTE
A ZERO WASTE EVENT

    • Keep in mind "zero-waste" isn't about perfection, but minimizing contributions to the landfill through diversion*, and considering the upstream** impacts of materials purchased for the event.
    • Make the experience as simple as possible for attendees.
    • Providing a variety of compostable, recyclable, and landfill-bound materials is confusing to guests and will result in unintentional contamination***.
    • We suggest achieving this by ensuring every material provided is either reusable or verified compostable (see step 3). This includes easily forgotten items like sauce packets, creamer cups, and stir sticks!
    • Verify that all disposables are actually compostable at the destination they are hauled to.
    • EDCO employees working to turn compostable waste into soil.

      SDSU is serviced by the waste hauler EDCO, who hauls compostable waste to their commercial composter in Escondido. While this facility is amazing at turning food and natural fibers into soil, the system cannot break down bioplastics, such as the clear beverage cups or plastic-looking cutlery and straws labeled "compostable." These bioplastic products cannot be recycled in the blue bin, either, so it's best to avoid purchasing them entirely.

    • Soil created from compostable waste.

      Only fiber and pulp-based disposables are acceptable in our campus compost stream, such as bamboo, paper, wood, bagasse, and parchment. Avoid paraffin wax coatings which are derived from petroleum and not compostable and opt for PLA-coated paper products instead.

    • Opt for bulk options instead of single serve packaged goods.
    • A member of GreenLove making use of donated mugs to get coffee. Various sweeteners in bowls sitting on a catering stand. Carafes filled with various dairy products sit next to a stack of paper cups. A member of GreenLove stands next to a table of baked goods.
    • If you're having coffee and tea catered, request bulk sugar in a bowl with a spoon and creamers in reusable carafes instead of plastic packets that cannot be composted or recycled.
    • Instead of providing snacks in individually wrapped bags or packets, purchase bulk equivalents like granola, trail mix, candy, etc. from stores like Sprouts and serve in a reusable dispenser.
    • Ensure your venue is equipped with a composting collection process and signage.
    • If you've successfully sourced all your event disposables from compostable materials, simplify the experience for attendees by only placing green compost receptacles around the venue, or cover the blue recycling and black landfill containers with large pieces of paper.
    • Add signage above green compost bins that shows photos of food and the compostable disposables from your event and wording that says, "Everything from this event can be composted."
    • If water is going to be served, try to serve it via a dispenser and compostable or reusable cups. If aluminum bottles or cans must be provided, ensure there is a blue recycling bin next to every green compost bin, and post event-specific signage. Here is an example.
    • Meet with the scheduled custodial team prior to the event and show them the disposables you're providing and which waste stream they go to, so that they can knowledgeably remove contamination after the event.
  • *Diversion: Alternative waste processing methods to landfills or incineration, such as recycling, composting, reuse, donation, or opting out of purchasing the material completely.
  • **Upstream: In sustainability, we use the metaphor of waste "streams" being like a river, where materials flow from one place to another. The mining, cultivation, manufacturing, transportation, and sale of materials before consumption are considered "upstream" environmental impacts while the impacts of a material after its consumption by the user are considered downstream.
  • ***Contamination: Anything placed incorrectly in diversion streams, such as plastic or metal in a compost stream, or food waste in a recycling stream.