USC: USC TIMES: Short Article Title

Housing's new environmental protection manager has plans to make housing 'green'

At the end of every spring semester, Columbia campus students throw away enough stuff, including concrete blocks, bed loft lumber, furniture, and clothes, to fill a 10-ton dump truck.

In the past, all of that refuse had to be hauled away at University expense, then buried in a landfill. And that's why Michael Koman has drawn a line, so to speak, in front of the dumpsters. Koman is the newly appointed environmental protection manager for University Housing, and he's brimming with ideas for more recycling and less waste.

"This year we put recycling boxes on about 85 percent of the residence hall floors," Koman said, noting that Corrugated Containers Inc. donated nearly $4,000 worth of cardboard boxes for the project. The effort is expected to salvage at least two tons worth of material that otherwise would been trucked to the landfill.

Koman's job is a new one and is funded through the Sustainable Universities Initiative, the School of the environment, and housing. His mandate, in broad terms, is to make the University housing operation more environmentally responsible. The toughest part, Koman said, will be to get students involved in the process.

"The housing facilities people want me to save them money; Gene Luna [housing director] wants me to increase recycling in the residence halls and promote more responsible materials purchases; and Bruce Coull [School of the Environment dean] wants me to save the world," Koman said, smiling. "So I just have to do those three things."

Koman, who previously worked for waste-management giant BFI in Philadelphia, plans to donate all of the discarded cement block and bed loft lumber to Habitat for Humanity.

Dorm room carpets and furniture will be donated to a Habitat resale store. This summer, he has plans for taking 9,000 square feet of carpet that will be removed from the McBryde quadrangle to a carpet recycling company. Eventually, University Housing will purchase 100 percent recyclable carpet. In addition, ceiling tiles and the metal grids that suspend them will be recycled from residence halls undergoing renovation.

"We want housing to be a model community for the University, as well as for the state and nation," said Gene Luna, director of University Housing. "We]ll be educating our students on environmental concerns, and when they graduate, we'll be sending out people who are more environmentally conscientious to communities across the nation."

Koman can be reached at komanmd@gwm.sc.edu.