Assignment - A Systems Approach to Waste Management at USF Tampa Campus

Objectives: The objective of this project is to develop an integrated waste management strategy for the USF-Tampa Campus. Students are required to apply systems thinking approach to analyze existing waste management practices and develop effective management system for the various waste streams on campus.

Purpose: Management of the various waste materials (such as paper, food, and other wastes) are usually done independently of each other and the different processes of waste management, including sorting, hauling, processing for recycle (such as composting) and disposal are not integrated. Considering the fact that all the processes are interlinked and inefficiency in ant step would affect the overall efficiency, it is important that a holistic approach that stems from systems thinking would be more effective in improving performance and also reducing operational costs.

This project is designed to apply a systems approach to waste management at USF-Tampa Campus. It will allow students to examine feedback loops and assess the synergies and negative interactions between the various sub systems of the operation. In developing a strategy to improve the overall efficiency of resource use, one has to consider different interacting and interdependent resource and waste flows within the campus.

Description of the campus: As the eighth largest university in the United States and the third largest in the state of Florida, the University of South Florida (USF) Tampa serves more than 40,000 students and 12,000 faculty and staff. Like many other university campuses, the USF Tampa campus is a veritable miniature city.

Each group is expected to explore different sources of information through reviewing literature from online reports, journal articles, newsletters and interviewing relevant departments or professionals. The list below includes some of the resource information about the campus:

Meal service on campus is contracted to Aramark Corporation. There are also other companies which cater and provide foods for special occasions. In addition there are gardening groups on the campus. USF has an on-campus garden where students are able to gain organic farming and/or gardening experience. USF Community Gardens is dedicated to creating and managing a large scale student-run community garden and farmers' market on campus. This community garden provides fresh organic fruits and vegetables for students and faculty.

USF has an extensive waste recycling system that is operated by Facilities Management. Although the waste management is done well, it is not necessarily optimized and there is no a holistic approach that links the various waste components and resources use.

Resource use and waste are not generated independently of one another. However, resource and waste streams are generally managed independently. While efficiency gains may be found by updating resource and waste stream infrastructure, a systems approach that looks at the incoming resource to campus, waste generated in various parts of the campus and the reuse /recycle practices should be considered in a holistic manner in order to achieve the highest level of resource use and waste management.

In this project students are expected to develop a waste management plan for USF Tampa campus based on systems thinking approach. In developing this plan, students should:

Understand the existing resource use and waste management on campus.

Discuss strengths and weakness of the existing waste management system

Draw simple feedback loops of the different waste management operations

Propose potential options to improve the efficiencies and provide justifications based on economic, social and environment benefits (If possible carry out LCA, LCC and or SLCA

Propose comprehensive strategies to improve resource efficiencies

Where there is a lack of information or data, students are expected to make professional assumptions.

This project provides students the ability to:

• Apply their system thinking knowledge to real world problems
• Understand opportunities and challenges of integrated systems analysis
• Develop an efficient waste management plan for campus based on systems thinking approach

Outline for document.

1. Existing Waste management strategy of USF Tampa.

2. Food (organic) department concentration

• How much food comes to USF (statistics)?
• Who supplies it? ( Aramark details)
• How much organic waste is produced at USF?
• How is it collected?
• How is it handled?
• Is it recycled at the community recycling site?
• Draw simple feedback loops of the different waste management operations
• Propose potential options to improve the efficiencies and provide justifications based on economic, social and environment benefits (If possible carry out LCA, LCC and or SLCA

3. Recommendations on improving food/organic waste management at USF.

Propose comprehensive strategies to improve food management efficiencies.

Attachment:- Assignment File.rar