Luther College has partnered with the Raptor Resource Project to launch a trapping station project to collect data on migratory birds of prey and provide field-based research opportunities for students. The banding station, located on Hawk Hill on the northeast edge of the Luther campus, is large enough for classes to observe wild birds, band them and gather data before releasing them back into the wild. The need for a blind was recognized when a station at Effigy Mounds near Harpers Ferry, Iowa, was shut down. Emily Neal, Assistant Director of Luther's Center for Sustainable Communities immediately got to work on writing a grant proposal for Resource Enhancement and Protection/Conservation Education Program (REAP/CEP) through Iowa's Department of Natural Resources. This project gives students unprecedented direct access to migratory bird research. Emily Neal notes that "Science at Luther isn't just happening between four walls of a classroom, but also out in the field with birds overhead." 

Every year student zero waste educators complete waste audits on the dumpsters behind Valders and Sampson Hoffland laboratories. Students sort the contents of the dumpster into various piles to learn more about the waste stream and to determine what percentage (by weight) is "true trash." The "true trash" pile consists of items that currently would not have a home in any of our other recycling or composting waste streams on campus. 

Over the course of the 2015-16 academic year, waste infrastructure was revamped in Valders and Sampson-Hoffland. Four-stream bins were placed strategically in centralized locations throughout the buildings at the same time that classroom trash and recycling bins were removed. The goal was to provide comprehensive options for waste disposal at every turn and to increase our percentage of true trash going to the landfill. A baseline waste audit in Fall 2015 demonstrates that 56.3% of the contents of the dumpster were true trash," with the remainder consisting of materials that could have been recycled, composted or reused. 

In 2016-17 students conducted two audits  as a way to study the effectiveness of the new waste infrastructure. In both cases the dumpster was 80% true trash and 20% divertable material. 

A follow-up waste audit was conducted in Fall 2017 and student zero waste educators are pleased to report that 89.6% of the  contents of the dumpster are now true trash! These audits demonstrate that, when combined with education, infrastructure is key to driving behavior change around something like waste. Keep up the great work, Luther!