After House Bill 251 was passed in 2004, Sinclair was required to reduce the energy consumption by 20 percent by 2014.
Woody Woodruff, director of facilities management, said that it’s much bigger than the recycling bins around campus. Sinclair is able to recycle metal, carpet, ink cartridges, batteries, textbooks, ceiling tiles, fluorescent bulbs, concrete, waste oil and more. Different departments, as well as the state of Ohio, have made all of this possible.
According to Woodruff, Sinclair has kept 77 school bus loads full of debris out of landfills. The sustainability project is called Green Our Scene.“The good thing about Sinclair is [that] we’re a very good school, we put out very good students, very bright people, our teaching; but out culture is one of sustainability,” said Woodruff.“ In all things, construction, recycling, how we approach our designs in our buildings maintenance, those things.”Over the years, different departments have made efforts to get more involved. For example, The culinary department donates their cooking oil that they don’t need anymore to the engineering department, whom then converts it to biodiesel fuel, which is what helps power the lawnmowers and snow blowers around campus. The culinary department has also made efforts by growing and using herbs from their own herb garden. The automotive department has also gotten involved by donating their waste oil to a local company.
Unused furniture around campus is also kept out of landfill, because it is resold instead of thrown away.
Woodruff said that students can help by making sure no kind of food or styrofoam goes into the recycling bins. If there is any kind of food attached to the recyclables, the trash hauler will refuse the whole load because there is no way to clean it. He also said that there is no local company that will take styrofoam, although it is recyclable.
“Strong student support would make it exceptional,” said Woodruff.
The way that the campus recycles is called comingle recycling. Which means that the trash is kept separate from the recyclables. When the trash and recyclables are taken away, the trash hauler sorts through the recyclables.
“This isn’t something that they’re just learning just for Sinclair, it’s that culture, that mindset that ideology needs to be engrained in them at a base level so that they can carry this on to their next occupation, their job their families so that they can do these things for the rest of their lives,” said Woodruff.