A University student recorded a phone video of a waste management truck mixing garbage and recyclables at Nicholson Gateway on Feb. 14. Executive Director of Facility & Property Oversight Tammy Millican said the University has since taken steps to investigate the situation.
Nicholson Gateway has a partnership between the University and a private company, RISE. Waste and recycling services at Nicholson Gateway are not part of the LSU contract, according to Millican.
The University has Republic Services on contract for garbage and recyclables pickup for the next five years. However, Millican confirmed the truck in the video belongs to Pelican Waste & Debris, the University’s previous garbage and recycling service vendor. RISE currently uses Pelican Waste to service the Nicholson Gateway area.
“We sent the video and the news story to RISE, and they were just as upset as we were when we reviewed it,” Millican said.
According to Assistant Director of Campus Sustainability and Property Oversight Sarah Temple, the University contracted Pelican from 2017 until the 2018-2019 academic year but switched to Republic when Pelican informed the University that it could not renew the contract. The company was reportedly losing money on recycling and could not offer the University the same rates as Republic.
“I would have been very surprised if [mixing of recyclables and waste] happened on one of our sites,” Temple said. “Republic told us that what happened in that video is a fireable offense.”
Temple said as Residential Life builds more residential halls, there will be more private partnerships with the University. The University does not determine what waste management company is used in private partnerships.
“When we contacted [Pelican] I wanted to let them know that we knew what had happened and that we did not appreciate it,” Temple said. “When we brought the situation up to Republic, there was a discussion on more proactive training to be sure nothing like this ever happens on their part.”
Temple said her department is doing everything in its power to make sure recyclables are disposed of correctly.
According to Temple, custodians receive special training on the recycling process. The process of determining whether a bag of recyclables is suitable to be sent to the recycling facility involves looking inside of the bag to ensure that the contents are not contaminated.
“An entire bag of recyclables can be contaminated by spoiled food, so it is really important that people are conscious about where their trash is going,” Temple said.
According to Millican, the department created a reward program called “caught you green-handed.” It was created to promote proper recycling procedures by rewarding custodians who were caught properly handling recycled items. Custodian caught “green-handed’’ would receive a gift card and a certificate.
Campus Sustainability additionally hires student workers to collect recyclables from the outside bins. Student workers are also trained on what can be recycled to ensure recyclables are not brought to landfills.
Millican said sustainability issues on campus should be reported to the Department of Campus Sustainability.