OM in the News: Sustainability Means Emptying Your Own Trash Can?

In my 40 years working in industry, government, and academia, I can’t remember anyone ever asking me to empty my office garbage can. Not that it would have been beneath me, as I am personally in charge of all trash disposal in my own home. But yesterday’s Wall Street Journal article “Memo to all Staff: Dump the Trash”, caught my eye as it was packaged to workers as a sustainability issue (see Ch.7).

Its not just in the State of Texas, the City of Phoenix, and Brewer Science (a Missouri semiconductor company) that  employees are being asked to tote their own trash and recyclables to common bins. The idea has also caught on that professors (yes profs!) at the U. of Washington and at Dartmouth College empty their own baskets as part of an environmental initiative.

There are some savings, of course. Texas saves $825,000 annually on labor costs. Brewer’s janitorial staff is now just a quarter of its original size. But Dartmouth presented the new program as part of a broad sustainability package, whose primary goals “are to increase campus recycling and reduce waste”, according to its  VP.

Some question the college’s  rationale. Psych prof Catherine Cramer is quoted as saying: “The real goals here, however prettily wrapped in sustainability rhetoric, are rather obvious”. She wonders if  “its good use my professional time”.

Just to be clear, though. Not everyone in Texas is in the program. The governor and legislators have kept their original trash service.

Discussion questions:

1. Discuss the economics of transferring work from low-paid employees to higher-paid professionals.

2. What is your own campus doing to enable the sustainability/ recycling efforts?