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Recycling and Composting at Lehman College

Large NYC/NYS entities are in a position to recycle larger and more varied source-separated recycling streams than that are residential settings. Large NYC/NYS entities generate large quantities of goods and materials that can be either reused whole or as parts/components, or broken down for recycling. Such streams (which go beyond mixed paper and metal/glass/plastic containers) are good candidates for reuse and recycling.

The different types of materials recycled at Lehman College are described in the table below. Some of the materials are recycled through the NYC Department of Sanitation, whose recycling program continues to evolve to include new recycling streams. Lehman College also uses contractors to dispose of certain recycling streams for which no public option exists (yet).

The City University of New York prepares an annual report (compiling data from all CUNY Colleges) to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (GreenNY/EO22) that quantifies recycling and sustainability activities of CUNY as a whole. The quantities of each recycling/composting stream at Lehman College is given in the table below:

 

 

Waste/recycling category

Unit weight

Number of units generated in one year (4/1/23 – 3/31/24)

Total weight

NYC DOS trash (not recycled)

9 tons per 30 cubic yard container

13 pickups during the reporting period

117 tons

Mixed Paper recycling

4 x 8 yd3/pickup = 32 yd3

193 lbs/cubic yard

2 pickups per month = 24 per year

74 tons

Mixed glass, plastic and metal container recycling

0.885 tons per 20 cubic yard container

10 containers/year

8.85 tons

Un-compacted construction debris

8 tons per 30 cubic yard container, 2.67 tons per 10 cubic yard container

(24 x 30 yards)

96 tons

Metals recycled through a scrap metal dealer

Weighed directly by recycler

N/A

27.6  tons

Composted Food-prep waste: composted in the Rocket and 5 composting bins (180 gallons capacity each).

250 lbs/week (avg), plus 1000 lbs annually from LC personnel

Food prep waste generated by cafeteria and Food Lab

7 tons

Weekly campus food-scrap collection and composting

50 lbs/week (avg)

52 weeks/year

1.3 tons

Pumpkins from annual Pumpkin Smash (= food scraps for composting)

Pumpkins consumed during event weighed directly by NYC Compost Personnel

180 pumpkins composted, avg  16 lbs each

1.4 tons

Gardening waste: leaves: composted in either the main compost pile or used as the carbon/”browns” component of food-scrap composting.

Fall leaf cleanup: 10 weeks of picking up leaves, 3-4x per week, using the leaf truck (10.33 yds3), filled up 2-3x per day; 400 lbs/yd3

160 yd3

Note: leaves are mulched by the shredding action of the leaf collector (= higher unit weight)

32 tons

Gardening waste: lawn clippings: growing season (May – October, 22 weeks):
Normal rain: mowed 1x per week

Dry season: mowed every two weeks

May, June, July: 13 weekly mowings;
Aug, Sept: 5 biweekly mowings
5 cubic yards lawn clippings per mowing

(280 lbs/ yd3)

90 yd3

Note: lawn clippings are either composted or mulched onto existing lawns

12.6 tons (weight of freshly-generated lawn clippings; weight rapidly decreases with time)

Used motor oil for recycling

6.68 lbs/gallon

250 gallons

0.835 tons

Obsolete electronics for reuse

800 lbs/pallet

51 pallets

20.4 tons



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