"The University currently employs traditional landfill disposal of solid wastes generated on campus. Due to the many environmental problems associated with landfills, we recommend that Sewanee consider using a local company called WastAway instead. WastAway (of the Bouldin Corporation) recycles household garbage into safe, usable materials. Employing the same pick-up system, our waste could be transported to a near-by WastAway facility (actually closer than our current landfill), where it would be converted into a stable substance called fluff that can be used as an effective growing medium or extruded to make products such as park benches, parking curbs, landscaping timbers, and fences. This switch would protect our local environment as well as benefiting local economies. The WastAway system was developed in near-by McMinville, TN and produces many jobs for communities currently suffering from relocation of manufacturing plants overseas. Further, Sewanee could display this environmentally sustainable choice through developing a demonstration garden that utilizes fluff for growing plants and the attractive recycled benches and fences for its necessary structures."

-- Katharine Wilkinson(C'05) & Lane Shackelford