Case Study: RiverWoods Durham Trash Facilitators

About the RWD Resident Trash Facilitator Case Study: 
When we began the Sustainability movement at RWD, our first priority was to improve the extent of recycling. Our Head of Dining was proactive, engaging the Mr. Fox Composting company to take kitchen waste, and he was looking into purchasing compostable take-out containers to replace single use plastics. We foresaw that teaching the residents how to handle compostable and recyclable materials would be a critical task where we could make a real difference. This first task expanded into a more comprehensive scope including additional waste products, recycling, composting, and waste reduction.

Objective:
a) Organize a team of resident Sustainability Committee members to manage the eight Trash Rooms in the Independent Living building and provide education for the residents on how to drop off trash and single-stream recycling.

b) Mobilize a combination of Staff Team and resident volunteers to provide an expanded menu of waste management, including apartment kitchen composting, take-out container composting, and recycling of select materials that could be kept out of single-stream. This last category can be recycled efficiently at the Durham Transfer Station, earning money for the Town and avoiding fees for single-stream disposal by our commercial vendor.