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Fifth Third

Bank

A Physical Waste Sort

Waste Characterization Objectives

Fifth Third Bank’s Madisonville Operations Center has an established commingled recycling program for all employees and a food recovery program from the kitchens. They requested a waste characterization sort through Hamilton County R3Source to: 

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  • Measure effectiveness of the commingled recycling program

  • Identify opportunities for improvement 

  • Assess the viability of recovering food waste from dining areas

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Key Findings:
Single-Serve Plastic
and Glass Bottles:
 

  • The audit found that the Operations Center recovers 71% of single-service plastic bottles. However, even with this high rate of recovery, single-serve plastic, and glass bottles were still in the top three materials found in the trash. 

  • To help keep employees from throwing away plastic and glass bottles at their desks, the recommendation was made for creating centralized trash and recycling collection points at very accessible points throughout the building. 

  • Recycling behavior is often based on convenience, and increasing the number of recycling containers around the building in high-traffic areas like breakrooms and next to printers increases the chances that they are near a recycling container when it’s needed.

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By the Numbers:
Results from Trash

Packaged Food - 46%​

Plastic Bottles - 10%

Glass Bottles - 8.5%

Compostable Items - 8%

Compostable Food Waste - 7%

Office Supplies - 4%

Mixed Trash - 3.5%

Cardboard - 3%

Office Paper - 3%

Disposable Coffee Cups - 2.5%

Cans - 2%

Non-Recyclable Plastic - 2%

Mixed Paper - 0.5%

Trash

Compost

Recyclable​

Results from Recycling

Plastic Bottles - 40%​

Office Supplies - 23.5%

Office Paper - 12.5%

Glass Bottles - 7.5%

Cans - 7%

Cardboard - 5.5%

Packages Food - 1.5%

Non-Recyclable Plastic - 1%

Disposable Coffee Cups- .5%

Compostable Items - .5%

Mixed Trash - .5%

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