Josh Rebello is an auditor, although no tax returns are concerned. His audits are accomplished outdoor, sporting protecting gear and sifting by way of baggage of rubbish, recyclables and compost supplies.
“I’m a zero waste auditor, and that’s not a straightforward job to elucidate,” he stated. “I inform individuals I do waste characterization, going by way of trash. As quickly as they hear that they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re a trash man.’”
Whereas Rebello has no problem with the “trash man” moniker, he’s keen to elucidate what he actually does.
“I take a look at the baggage that come from our recycling stations – landfill, recycling and compost – to get an concept of how individuals are utilizing these bins,” he stated. “As soon as we all know how we’re doing, we will reinvest in educating individuals about what goes the place.”
Multistream recycling bins like these at USC Village are being put in all through the USC campuses. (USC Picture/Gus Ruelas)
If everybody lived like Rebello, there wouldn’t be a lot trash to fret about. He composts behind his residence constructing, and he carries his personal containers to shops that fill them with family merchandise. Rebello makes his personal lip balm with beeswax and jojoba oil. Toothpaste is simply baking soda and coconut oil. His dessert recipes embrace discovered fruit.
“I found some bananas in a compost bin,” he stated. “They have been slightly bruised however inside they have been excellent, so I turned them into banana ice cream. A co-worker and I got here throughout a field of apples that had been deserted subsequent to a compost bin. I put some in a bag, made apple crisp and introduced it to work.”
It’s price noting that Rebello carried the crisp to campus on the bus. He’s lived in Los Angeles for 3 years with out a automotive. Loads of strolling retains him effortlessly skinny.
Josh Rebello helps USC get to zero waste
Rebello is one in every of two zero waste auditors at USC, a duo anticipated to turn out to be a staff of 20 within the subsequent 5 years. They’ll assist USC transfer towards its aim of zero waste — that means 90% of all recyclables and compostable supplies are diverted from landfills — by 2028.
It’s a course of that begins upstream by lowering non-recyclable supplies and packaging. Recycling and composting are available in downstream. Final 12 months, the college’s diversion charge was 33%, giving Rebello and his boss Gina Whisenant lots to do.
“We’re making an attempt to shut the loop and preserve our recycling and keep away from the landfill in any respect price,” stated Whisenant, a waste and recycling supervisor. “Which means keeping trash out of recycling bins and compost. We do very nicely with recycling, however we regularly discover 75% recycling in our landfill bins. We have now to do higher than that.”
In a great world, every thing would simply be reusable.
Josh Rebello
Whisenant has overseen the deployment of 70 new, clean-stream recycling stations at USC Village, McCarthy Quad, Tutor Campus Heart, Leavey Library and Papas Quad on the Well being Science Campus. One other 200 will probably be out by subsequent summer season. Comparable stations have been piloted late final 12 months. All have bins for landfill, recycling and compost, together with a sink to dump out soda, espresso and water. Liquid can contaminate recyclable containers and make trash a lot tougher to deal with.
The college has confirmed the viability of zero waste on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which is operated by USC. The Coliseum has hit zero waste on the majority of Trojan dwelling soccer video games over the previous few years and can strive for its third Zero Waste Bowl victory on Saturday when the Trojans play Oregon State.
In a zero waste auditor’s preferrred world, every thing is reusable
At 26, Rebello has been auditing for a number of years. He can eyeball a clear bag of trash and estimate how a lot of it might have been recycled or composted nearly immediately. Carrying a solar hat that, in a earlier life, was a discarded eating corridor ornament, he tracks all of it on a sturdy pill. All that information contributes to a much bigger monitoring effort. Its conclusions are fed again into an schooling loop to assist educate the campus neighborhood how one can recycle proper.
“In a great world, every thing would simply be reusable,” Rebello stated. “As a result of the industries which might be making this stuff, they’re not telling anybody the right solution to eliminate any of it. It isn’t essentially taught in class, and if your loved ones isn’t doing it, you’re simply not going to remember. In order that leaves the college to teach individuals.”
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