No More Down the Drain - Final Report
No More Down the Drain- Final Report
1. Submitted by -Erik Scollon
2. Project Leaders- Erik Scollon, Kate Wees, Robert Abrams
3. No More Down the Drain at the ASUC Art Studio
4. Project Summay
a. The goal of this project was to reduce the amount of waste that the ceramics studio within the ASUC Art Studio generates. Before initiating the project, some amount of scrap clay, and excess glaze was either being washed down the sink, or thrown out in the garbage. A system was needed to capture these materials. The hope was to use these recaptured materials and recycle them into flower pots or other useful pottery.
b. With the purchase of two special closed-system recycling sinks (called Cinks) students can now wash dirty tools in the Cinks instead of the sinks. We were able to reduce out glaze waste to almost zero. Now almost all glaze waste material is recaptured and reconstituted into a useable glaze called “Green” Glaze (both because of its color, and because of its sustainability). The recycling sink (Cink) dedicated to capturing waste clay has been successful enough to capture hundreds of pounds of clay, but we are still working out a system that is as successful as our glaze recapture system.
2. Challenges / obstacles –The biggest challenge with this project has been the struggle to find and fund the additional work hours necessary to support the recapture and recycling efforts. We have responded by creating a special internship program within the studio where select members have worked on the TGIF greenware project in exchange for their membership fees. As well, we could still benefit from an improved clay recapture system that is better suited to meet the demands and work load of the studio.
3. Sustainability Impact
a. To date, we have been able to create hundreds of flower pots from clay and glaze that would have previously been thrown out or washed down the drain. We have been able to recapture 40 gallons of useable glaze material. This is the equivalent of enough glaze material to glaze 3,840 coffee mugs. We have also been able to capture about 900 lbs of useable clay, or the equivalent of 900 coffee mugs.
4. Do you expect on-going benefits (annual cost savings)? We don’t expect this program to provide any savings to the Art Studio. In fact, continuing this project will cost us labor hours to keep the program running. However, we continue working on the Green Internship program where hopefully we can use the recycled materials to produce useable items (most likely flower pots) as a way to continue funding the project. But, we do expect that there to be ongoing savings by UC Facilities (plumbing), as we have significantly reduced the stress on the system by reducing the amount of solid materials that get washed down the drain.
5. Visibility / Outreach
a. We have been able to promote both our recycling program and TGIF though the sales of our recycled pottery. This happens on a daily basis in the studio in special dedicated display cases. As well, we are able to promote TGIF and our recycling program twice yearly at our Holiday Sale, and Spring Sale.
6. Conclusions and next steps – Our project will continue into the future, with the possibility of connecting with groups outside of the studio who could benefit from our project. Potential contacts include nurseries and green houses.
7. Budget Summary – Kate to attach this.