F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions)
- What is UF doing to change to less toxic cleaning products?
- Why is pasteboard not recycled on campus?
- How do I sign my department up for the FlexCar Program?
- Why is the irrigation system running in the middle of the day, which is against the watering restrictions set by the St. John’s River Water Management District?
- Does UF have a sustainable purchasing policy?
- Why are there broken sprinkler heads on campus?
- Why does UF keep building more parking garages when it says it’s trying to keep cars off the road?
- Is there a way to get recycling at my apartment complex?
- Where is the organic garden, and how do I get a plot?
- What transportation alternatives are there at UF if I don’t want to drive my car?
- Our office regularly produces small to large quantities of Styrofoam peanuts. Can they be reused or recycled on campus?
- I have been replacing incandescent light bulbs with the more efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) ones. I know they use less energy and have a longer life span, but I was disappointed when found out I should dispose of burned out compact fluorescent bulbs as hazardous waste, due to the fact they contain some mercury. Have I been wrong all this time by going for the more efficient bulbs? Tell me which is the lesser evil?
- My colleagues and I were discussing ways for our departments to be more energy efficient. We've heard that "dormant" appliances still draw energy. What can we do about this?
- I have noticed that most of the buildings at UF seem to be overly cold due to the use of air conditioning. This seems like a waste, and I am wondering why UF does not turn up the thermostat to save money and energy?
- Recently, the UF Campus Directory hit our mailboxes, and the adjacent recycling bin was filled up with them by lunch time. Since the information in the directory is freely available on-line, isn’t continuing to print large quantities of phone books a waste of trees, energy, and time?
- I was wondering if you know whether the juice boxes are good for recycling. They look like they’re made of paper but on the other hand they are covered with some sort of synthetic inside. I don’t know if I should put them in the paper bin for recycling or just trash them in the “normal” trash-bin?
Q: What is
UF doing to change to less toxic cleaning products?
A: UF and Shands have begun the transition to "green" cleaning products. Many of the products already being used are Green Seal certified. Some of our cleaning equipment, such as our vacuum cleaners, have also been “green certified” by Green Seal.
Q: Why is pasteboard not recycled on campus?
A: Pasteboard is, to some extent, recyclable. Unfortunately, none of the
contractors really want it because it has almost no value in the paper
market. If the percentage of any given load of mixed paper is low in pasteboard,
it does get recycled. If the percentage is too high, the load gets rejected.
The problem is the extreme majority of the fiber used to
manufacture pasteboard comes from the poorest quality of
previously recycled paper. This means the individual fiber
strands are so short, their useful life is about over. That's
why when it tears, it's almost dusty. In other words, we
don't really say much about it at UF because most of our
paper is high quality. The volume of paste board is so low
in our bins that the recyclers don't mind a little pasteboard
contamination. If we the volume got high enough, it would
become an issue.
The only solution right now is to shred and compost it. We
do not currently have an active composting program on campus,
but for home composting the City of Gainesville has some
great resources and offers free and/or low cost bins. For
more information, you can call 334-2330 to speak with the
Waste Alternatives team at the City.
Q: How do I sign my department up for the FlexCar Program?
A: Go to the PPD web site. Select the FlexCar logo, and that will take you to the UF Flex Car page. The Department will need to sign up for a Departmental Membership with a PO or preferably a P-Card. The Department will be given a Flex Car account number. Then each driver will need to sign up for a membership using the Departmental account number. Membership for both is free. Individuals can sign up for a Departmental and personal membership. They will have one Flex Card and simply select the membership they want to use during the reservation.
Q: Why is the irrigation system running in the middle of the day, which is against the watering restrictions set by the St. John’s River Water Management District?
A: The University of Florida is under the jurisdiction of the St. John's River Water Management District and abides by all guidelines mandated regarding water use and permits.
Almost 100% of UF's irrigation water
is reclaimed from our on-campus waste water treatment facility.
The requirement to water landscapes
before 10am and after 4pm water management and only twice a
week requirement, applies to potable water resources.
Because we, the users of potable water at UF, consume a great
deal, the campus creates a great deal of reclaimed water. Our
storage capacity for treated water is surpassed by our generation
of water that needs to be treated. It's an unfortunate reality
that we can and sometimes need to irrigate at all times of
the day and night to distribute the reclaimed water.
The sustainability concern is on the front end of this equation.
Our laboratories and building users do not treat water as a
precious commodity because they do not have to pay for it.
Our EH&S staff is trying to work with laboratory users
on campus to install water saving devices, but again, there
is not a financial incentive for researchers to spend their
funds on conservation measures.
Q: Does UF have a sustainable purchasing policy?
A: Purchasing and Disbursement Services has done much in the past few years to ensure that the vendors contracted by the university are engaging in activities that are aligned with UF’s sustainability goals. In 2003 it drafted purchasing guidelines intended to lessen UF’s environmental impact by purchasing environmentally preferable products whenever they perform satisfactorily and are available at a reasonable price. Now they are moving toward a holistic purchasing directive, which encourages a broader commitment to the social and environmental aspects of sustainable purchasing.
Among other things, the guidelines mandate that the school will buy products with recycled content whenever possible and purchase products such as remanufactured print cartridges, Energy Star certified appliances, and non-toxic cleaning products. These guidelines also encourage vendors to reduce the packaging and take products back at the end of their useful lives.
Q: Why are there broken sprinkler heads on campus?
A: The Grounds Department Irrigation is responsible for the maintenance, repair and installation of irrigation systems on the University of Florida main campus as well as surrounding facilities. There are currently over 235 acres of active irrigation on the main campus. The T.R.E.E.O. Center, Whitney Lab at Marineland, and Biotech in Alachua’s Progress Center are some of the outlying facilities maintained by Grounds Irrigation.
Very often, irrigation problems have simply not been reported to Grounds. If you spot an irrigation related problem i.e.; broken sprinklers or lines or sprinklers systems running for an excessive amount of time, please contact the Work Management Center at (352) 392-1121 or be clicking here to submit a work order.
Q: Why does UF keep building more parking garages when it says it’s trying to keep cars off the road?
A: The UF Campus Master Plan anticipates the addition of about 5,000 new students and 2,000 new employees on the main campus over the next 10 years. Along with this campus growth will be continued growth in visitors and patients, particularly in the areas around the Health Science Center and clinics in the area of the Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Institute building. Currently, the University provides approximately 24,000 parking spaces for its population of 45,000 students, 17,000 employees and untold visitors. Clearly, the ratio of parking supply to demand is quite low and will remain so.
To accommodate the transportation access demands of the campus community, the university relies heavily on its very successful partnership with the Regional Transit System that provides universal prepaid transit access for faculty, staff and students. Additionally, the University is continually expanding its support of non-auto travel as demonstrated by its recent collaboration with FlexCar and GreenRide carpool matching. These new programs are in addition to ongoing efforts to encourage and accommodate carpooling, walking and bicycling.
For information about UF's commitment to providing alternatives to single occupancy vehicle (SOV) travel, please visit the Office of Sustainability and Transportation and Parking Services websites.
Q: Is there a way to get recycling at my apartment complex?
A: Yes! Everyone should be able to recycle. First of all, talk to the leasing office at your apartment complex. They may have recycling bins placed somewhere that you just aren't aware of. Apartment complexes are required by the City of Gainesville to provide recycling for newspaper, glass, aluminum, and plastic. If your complex does not, you can call (352) 334-2330 and leave a message with your name and contact information. The city will contact the complex and follow up to improve recycling there.
Q: Where is the organic garden, and how do I get a plot?
A: The UF Organic Garden is located on SW 23rd Terrace, about ¼ mile south of Archer Road. The cost of a 12-foot x 25-foot plot is $10 per half year, plus a $5 deposit. Members of the cooperative plant vegetables and flowers of their choice on their plots, and are responsible for up-keep. They are expected to practice organic gardening methods and to participate in community workdays several times each semester. Water, manure, and some seeds are provided, and various tools are available onsite. For more information, and to rent a plot, please call or email Ginny Campbell, the plot coordinator (378-6103; epaulc@bellsouth.net).
Q: What transportation alternatives are there at UF if I don’t want to drive my car?
A: UF’s Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) offers a number of alternative transportation options. In addition to simply taking a walk or biking to and around campus, UF offers the RTS bus service, GreenRide ridesharing, the Flexcar car-sharing program, and even has an on-campus taxi for faculty and staff. For more information on how you can make the switch to sustainable transport, check out the TAPS website .
Q: Our office regularly produces small to large quantities of Styrofoam peanuts. Can they be reused or recycled on campus?
A: Do It Reitz, the mailing business on the bottom floor of the Reitz Union, takes them and re-uses them. They will also take bubble wrap, and small personal electronics, such as cell phones and pagers.
Q: I have been replacing incandescent light bulbs with the more efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) ones. I know they use less energy and have a longer life span, but I was disappointed when found out I should dispose of burned out compact fluorescent bulbs as hazardous waste, due to the fact they contain some mercury. Have I been wrong all this time by going for the more efficient bulbs? Tell me which is the lesser evil?
A: According to calculations, a U.S. kilowatt-hour generates .012 milligrams of mercury, through the burning of fossil fuels such as coal. So, a 20-watt CFL running for a lifetime of 10,000 hours would generate ~2.4 mg of mercury, while comparable 75-watt incandescent bulbs running collectively for 10,000 hours (one would not “live” this long), would generate 9.0 mg. Add in the 5 mg of mercury that might reside in a CFL bulb (a high average) and you get a total of 7.4 mg -- still less than the incandescent. Therefore, the cost benefit seems to be in favor of the more efficient bulb. An added benefit for the efficient CFL’s is that in Gainesville, they can be recycled (the mercury is reclaimed and the ballast is recycled) by taking them to Georges Hardware, Zells Ace Hardware, or Indigo.
Q: My colleagues and I were discussing ways for our departments to be more energy efficient. We've heard that "dormant" appliances still draw energy. What can we do about this?
A: Electronic devices obviously draw electricity when in use. Most also draw electricity when not in use. They do this while they wait poised on "standby" or because they have a clock or LED light. Sometimes they do this because their plug is poorly designed. The amount of "phantom" power drawn is amazing. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, around 75 percent of the energy used by our appliances is drawn while we think they are "off." Typical offenders include computers, peripherals, televisions, and chargers for cell phones or iPods, etc.
A quick solution to this financial and sustainability conundrum is plugging electronics into a power strip with an on/off switch. When you are through using the equipment on a strip, you can turn off the strip, which cuts the electricity to the appliances. Of these power strips, I think the most interesting is the SmartStrip. It has multiple outlets: one is the master outlet, and when a piece of equipment plugged into this outlet is turned off, all the connected outlets also shut off power. It’s a lot easier to remember to power down one electronic device, like a desktop computer, than it is to remember to shut off the monitor, printer, scanner, charger cradle, etc.
Q: I have noticed that most of the buildings at UF seem to be overly cold due to the use of air conditioning. This seems like a waste, and I am wondering why UF does not turn up the thermostat to save money and energy?
A: A large majority of UF buildings are cooled through a very efficient Chilled Water utility produced by UF’s Physical Plant Division (PPD). This system cools the supply air to 55 degrees. Each building is different, but many have a re-heat type system that uses heated piped steam to reheat the air back up to the desired air temperature set for the zone or space. Having a cooler temperature setting actually saves energy by not reheating up the air. However, we must reheat to a minimum level of comfort for all the occupants. Currently, in our humid climate, this is the best way we have of removing the humidity from the air to keep our buildings healthy, and free of mold and mildew. We are continuously trying to improve our systems by increasing comfort and unit efficiency, while still focusing on decreasing energy consumption. PPD can always use feedback from our customers by calling our Work Management Center to report an area that seems to be too cold or too hot at 392-1121.
Q: Recently, the UF Campus Directory hit our mailboxes, and the adjacent recycling bin was filled up with them by lunch time. Since the information in the directory is freely available on-line, isn’t continuing to print large quantities of phone books a waste of trees, energy, and time?
A: The Campus Directory is monitored closely. The quantity is based on specific orders received from each department, so someone in your department requested the number of directories your unit received. If directories are being thrown away, please request that the number ordered for your department be reduced for next year.
Over the past three years, the number of directories that the campus receives has been almost cut in half. Campus directories are provided free to the campus community through advertising revenues. Two goals of the staff who work with the directory contract are to reduce the size of the publication and to eliminate unwanted copies. UF also hopes to offer the 2008-09 Campus Directory on CD.
A Print-to-Electronic conversion initiative is also underway for other publications on campus and already almost 40 publications at UF have been converted to electronic distribution. There still have a long way to go, but we've made a good start.
If you would like to reduce the number of directories your department receives, please have your department respond to the electronic Directory Request Form that will be included in the Campus Directory and Local Telephone Book Distribution DDD Memo from OIT-Telecommunications in August 2008. For questions or more information about directory distribution, contact Ray Warner at rcwarner@ufl.edu or 392-1139.
Q: I was wondering if you know whether the juice boxes are good for recycling. They look like they’re made of paper but on the other hand they are covered with some sort of synthetic inside. I don’t know if I should put them in the paper bin for recycling or just trash them in the “normal” trash-bin?
A: Unfortunately, these boxes you refer to must go in the trash. The paper on them is very high quality, but because they are often lined with a metal such as aluminum, and they are coated in that waxy plastic, they are not recyclable in our area.
My recommendation is to try to find similar drinks that come in a can or plastic bottle that is recyclable or, better yet, buy your favorite beverage in a larger size, and bring it with you in a re-useable single serve container that you can wash. I think they even sell these in that fun juice box shape.
Send your questions to sustainability@ufl.edu.
