My question is in regards to the level of detailed required for this credit. Most offices collect commingled recyclables such as glass, plastic and aluminum cans; essentially single-use drink containers. Can these recycling streams be reported together?
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Dan Ackerstein
PrincipalAckerstein Sustainability, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
819 thumbs up
April 14, 2010 - 6:05 pm
Absolutely - simply enter them as 'commingled' in the template and note what types of material are included in the commingled collection stream. Note that this flexibility for MRc7 differs from MRc6, in which an EBOM-compliant waste audit requires a more complete sorting of materials to identify missed opportunities.
Paul C
164 thumbs up
November 5, 2010 - 3:26 pm
My question is similar to the one above and the question above about depth of data collection. Since all of our recyclables are commingled can I just say 'Commingled' in the template and note all the materials that are recycled (paper, cardboard, glass, metals, plastics...) since our hauler does not have the ability to measure each trip how much glass, cardboard, paper individually. We receive monthly reports stating pounds recycled vs. pounds landfilled and wanted to know if this would suffice.
In Credit MRc6, we stated all sensitive shredded paper is 100% recycled and landscape waste is 100% recycled onsite, but was not included in our calculations. Is it safe for this credit to not include weights of either again as we do not have a means to measure the weight of landscape material or shredded paper especially since our building is a multiple tenants and we do not want to inconvenience our tenants in weighing their sensitive papers.
Dan Ackerstein
PrincipalAckerstein Sustainability, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
819 thumbs up
November 8, 2010 - 10:17 am
That would suffice Paul - for MRc7 the distribution of materials within your recycling stream matters much less than the overall weight/volume of the recycled material. And I think you are safe on landscape waste and shredded paper as long as you exclude them from the calculation completely; to include them you'd need some kind of measurement (many of my clients estimate volumes visually then convert to weight using EPA conversion rates), but if you simply exclude them from the equation with a note that 100% is recycled, you should be fine.