Though some residence hall students might not notice, the trash bins on campus may be on the way out.
Office of Physical Plant (OPP) is experimenting with a new system of on-campus trash removal.
Paul Ruskin, spokesman for OPP said the Exterior Waste Collection Committee is looking to improve the on-campus collection system, making trash removal both cost effective and aesthetically pleasing.
"There's a conflict between our efforts to pick up waste on the campus and the daily life of the campus," he said.
In the past, all trash has been collected in large metal trash bins. As they are emptied every morning, the bins create a loud clattering wake-up call for many sleeping residence hall students.
This method of pick-up could now become obsolete. Instead, a system that uses small teams of workers travelling in smaller, quieter pick-up trucks will collect the trash.
Ruskin said students and staff wouldn't notice a change inside the buildings, but rather than throwing garbage into the large bins, bags would be moved to docking areas by existing trash container locations, making collection almost unnoticeable.
He likened the process to waste removal at a theme park.
"The ultimate way to do this is to have waste collection underground with conveyor belts connecting all buildings," Ruskin said.
With the beginning of classes and football season, this is the most difficult time of year to implement the experimental system, he said.
"We are purposely running the experiment now to prove that if the concept works now, it will work any time."
The 6-week project began last week and will last through Oct. 17.
Al Matyasovsky, a coordinator for the removal crews, said the new process was successful during the first week, and those working on the project are learning as they go.
This week OPP will change the times and schedule of pick-up at buildings participating in the pilot program, including Atherton, Holmes and Leete halls and Boucke and Ritenour buildings.
OPP will first determine if the campus can function without the large trash containers.
If this plan doesn't work, the existing bins might be screened by walls or landscaping, Ruskin said.
One of the goals of the new system is to lower the cost accompanying waste removal, but at this point no estimates can be made, he said.
"It's such a different way of doing it, we really don't know if it will cost more or less," he said. "It's a really innovative, thinking out-of-the-Dumpster concept."
Currently, several hundred trash containers must be maintained through a process which includes painting and repairing dents and dings at the close of each school year.
The containers also leave a "footprint" in the amount of space they use and that space might be more useful in other ways, Ruskin said.
Students who live with the noise of daily trash pick-up look forward to the new system.
Erin Clemmer (sophomore-communications sciences and disorders), a resident of Simmons Hall, is wakened many mornings by the trash removal crews emptying the trash below her window.
"If [the new method] actually is quieter, it would be an improvement," she said. "I'm sure there will be problems that do come along with it."
Some students said garbage removal isn't their main concern at the university.
"Personally, I didn't even notice if it was a problem," Tamara Salamon (senior-psychology and Spanish) said. "There are more important things on my mind than looking at trash."
Brian Trainer (senior-business logistics and international business) said the school should make other improvements ahead of aesthetically pleasing trash removal.
"The costs of implementing something like this would outweigh the benefits," he said. "I'd rather see them have better, faster services for students. The campus is beautiful enough."
