This summer our office is working hard to implement the “My Tiny Trash” initiative in offices across campus. My Tiny Trash promotes waste awareness, encourages environmental stewardship, and increases recycling rates. 

Fellow universities have been implementing this program for years and their recycling rates have increased exponentially. Here at UT, the pilot program in Facilities Services Complex raised the recycling rate to double that of the campus average. Not only does recycling go up, but waste overall is shown to go down. This is a great step towards making our campus a Zero Waste space! 

The main difference with My Tiny Trash over traditional office waste is that office workers take the responsibility of emptying their own desk side bins at centrally located waste stations. This is accomplished by replacing traditional office waste baskets with three-quart Tiny Trash containers attached to a larger recycling bin. This has proven to encourage stewardship of recycling, gives people a real look at what they’ve been throwing out, greatly reduces the amount of plastic bin liners used, and encourages us all to move more! 

Looking forward to the school year, we will be implementing this program in the rest of UT offices. We are excited that this program has begun to encourage people to consider what they dispose of and to reduce waste. We can’t wait to see where it goes!