Theme: Waste Diversion & Reduction

These projects focus on how to reduce the amount of waste produced on campus, encourage behavior changes that reduce waste production, or explore avenues of recycling/compost/reuse that allow us to lower our campus's waste footprint. 

Stooping Club

Project Description

A) Project Leaders
Stooping Club Berkeley Project Leaders: William Chui, Lucas Du, and Inesh Gupta

B) Goals of the Project

Stooping Club is the world’s first free online chain store. Its vision is to transform society's throwaway culture into a reuse culture and build the circular economy. Through its international network of 16 student-run stores across six countries, Stooping Club seamlessly diverts useful items from landfill to good homes. tackling the growing waste crisis and the lack of affordable access to household items. By listing...

Haas Wonderfil Station

Project Description

Introduce Wonderfil station to our UC Berkeley and Haas community, eliminating single-use plastic, and providing quality sustainable inexpensive basic need products.

Project Links

Project Application

Project Poster

Fallen to Functional: Community Spaces from Campus Wood Waste

Project Description

A) Jack Van Thyne
B) Fallen to Functional: Community Spaces from Campus Wood Waste is a design-build project that turns fallen campus trees into outdoor furniture for student gathering spaces. The project offers a more sustainable and locally sourced alternative to the plastic and metal benches typically purchased from third-party suppliers.
By reusing wood that would otherwise be discarded, the project reduces waste, lowers environmental impact, and highlights UC Berkeley’s natural landscape. Each piece will include a small plaque describing where the...

BARE Necessities Exchange Shop

Project Description

A) Project Leaders: Dr. Amari McGee, Amada Madrigal
B) Goals of Your Project: To provide accessible and gently used clothing and essentials to student residents and their families, fostering confidence, comfort, and a culture of giving and sustainability through donations and reuse.
C) Optional: a link to your website or social media presence: BARE YouTube page"

Project Links

Project Application

Project Poster

SPROUTS

Project Description

SPROUTS, or Student Projects Redefining Our University's Trash, Sustainably, will be a waste education and outreach team focused on events, education campaigns, working with Overstock and Surplus, and teaching a standardized campus waste audit.

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Refills Not Landfills

Project Description

Refills not Landfills will collaborate with local beverage sellers to create a stamp card that can be used by customers who bring their own mugs. Each time a customer BYOM's s/he will receive a stamp and work towards a free drink, with a goal of incentivizing customers to "refill" or reuse, not "landfill".

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Project Application

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Pedaling Towards Zero Waste

Project Description

Pedaling Towards Zero Waste would fund a hybrid human-electric powered Truck Trike to be used by ReUSE, CRRS, and other licensed and trained campus individuals for pick-ups and deliveries of reusable materials or during sustainability related projects.

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Project Application

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Video as Marketing for Event Waste Diversion

Project Description

The Video as Marketing for Waste Diversion program (VaMWD, pronounced as “vamed”) will create three video shorts (30 – 90 seconds) to increase campus awareness of waste diversion, and in the process, will provide student interns with a cross-disciplinary and hands-on education of filmmaking for environmental and social causes.

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Max-R Bins

Project Description

This project will implement new Max-R centralized collection bins for landfill, mixed paper, bottles and cans, and compost, in large student use buildings. The addition of the new units in highly trafficked student buildings will help familiarize students with proper incentives to divert their wastes.

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Project Application

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Wine Barrel Composting

Project Description

The Anaerobic Digestion Project within ESW aims to build an anaerobic digester that will efficiently convert food waste into methane, the principle component of natural gas. Compared to other hydrocarbons, burning methane as fuel produces less carbon dioxide for each unit of heat released. Additionally, a byproduct of anaerobic digestion is digestate, a nutrient rich natural fertilizer.

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