Supporting Education at Rice

The Rice Recycling Program is happy to make its information and personnel available to the Rice community to assist with teaching, research, student projects, and student activities.  We can also assist with field trips to landfills and recycling facilities.  For more information, contact Richard Johnson at (713) 348-5003. 

Following is a list of classes and projects that have used the recycling program as a living laboratory:

• BAKE 302: Understanding Environmental Systems (Spring 1998). This class used the Rice campus as an environmental system to teach a systems approach to problem solving.
• ENVI 490: Campus Audit Research Group (Spring 1998). This class conducted an environmental audit of Rice and created recommendations based on its outcome.
• ECON 403: Independent Study (Spring 1999). Taken by Angie Martindill. She conducted a cost-benefit analysis of a campus composting system.
• CENG 500: Independent Study (Spring 1999). Taken by Andrew Duryea. He created a model of the Earth Tub composting system.
• ENVI 201: Intro to Environmental Systems (multiple years). Helped to arrange a field trip to our paper recycler's pulping mill to demonstrate the recycling process in action.
• UNIV 303: The Impact of CO2 (Spring 1999). This class examined Rice's carbon dioxide output and created a model to estimate yearly production.
• UNIV 303: The Impact of CO2 (Spring 2000). This class looked at how decisions are made at the university relative to environmental projects and ways of remediating Rice's carbon dioxide emissions.
• UNIV 303: Rice Into the Future (Spring 2002). This class researched how other universities have created positive changes in their environmental footprint and drafted an Environmental Policy to be considered for Rice.
• ENST 302: Rice Into the Future (Spring 2003). Examined methods of creating institutional committment to reducing the environmental impact of universities. Drafted an outline for a standing committee on Sustainability and supported the creation of working committees in the Student Association and residential college governments.
• CEVE 321: The Professional Engineer (Spring 2003). The class examined the process of the recycling program, analyzed its state, and created suggestions for improvement.
• ENST 302: Rice Into the Future (Spring 2004).  This class worked on nine projects: an audit of attitudes in the Rice community towards the environment, strengthening the role of student government in environmental concerns, reducing waste in academic departments, raising student awareness regarding transportation options, composting at Sid Rich college, auditing the recycling program, reducing waste at the south servery, studying the composition of the Board of Trustees, and monitoring fume hoods to reduce energy consumption.
• ENST 302: Rice Into the Future (Spring 2005).  This class focused on four projects:  improving recycling in the Rice Memorial Center, reducing food waste in the north grounds servery, reducing waste in the School of Continuing Studies and the Rice Players theater group, and examining environmentally-friendly flooring materials for new construction and renovations.

Last updated: May 5, 2005