The storage room of the Department of Chemistry is a small centralized space in the science laboratory building. In a typical working day, warehouse manager Aly Hearn '13 prepares the teaching laboratory by measuring chemicals to the correct amount and diluting them to the correct concentration. This may be a tedious job, but once it is done, Hearn has the opportunity to devote time to her other passion: sustainability.

This Illinois State University alumnus was hired as a warehouse assistant in 2016. Now, as a manager, she has reduced the department's environmental footprint.

"I advocate reduction, reuse, and recycling in order. You should reduce as much as possible, and then, if you can’t, use it again, and then as a last resort, recycle it," Hearn said, "I have a strong relationship with this place. I’ve been here for so many years and I’ve always wanted to change the world, so I think it’s a special thing to give back to the students of my alma mater."

By cooperating with teachers and students in the Office of Sustainability and the Department of Chemistry, Hearn has made great strides in greener practices. She is most proud of seeing the participation of students in the department.

"I was very impressed with the reception I received," Hearn said. "I think our current students-undergraduates and graduates-feel that sustainability is part of their growth in their lives. I think this is almost something deeply rooted in our students, and something they have always wanted to do."

The warehouse has a centralized material inventory system, so the department's sustainability work starts with the purchase of products. The department no longer buys everything in bulk like it used to, and now only buys what they need, especially when the shelf life is short, because any unused items must be treated as waste.

Hearn also included "green chemistry" or sustainable chemistry in the teaching laboratory. Green chemistry reduces the use of hazardous materials in chemical applications in laboratory work. If the materials used in the teaching laboratory are harmless, any unused materials can be directly discharged into the sewer without the need for large hazardous waste buckets.

In order to further reduce the impact on the environment, any hazardous waste generated in the storage room will be condensed. In the past, waste was stored and processed in one-gallon bottles, but now any waste generated in the laboratory is collected in a 30-gallon bucket. This method can not only reduce the impact of hazardous waste, but also save departmental funds, because the cost of disposing of waste depends on the number of containers used.

"I advocate reduction, reuse, and recycling in order. You should reduce as much as possible, and then, if you can't, reuse it, and then recycle it as a last resort."

Hearn reuses materials as much as possible. Empty containers are used for storage: chemical barrels are reused as cleanup boxes, and even transport materials have found a second life in the warehouse. Other departments have also noticed.

"We have received a lot of goods, and because of the nature of the goods being shipped, it is usually filled with a lot of extra materials there. Therefore, we will keep these items when we need to store items or need to send fragile items," Hearn said . "I believe the IT department just came and took away a lot of my things because they have something to store. People are beginning to understand that if they need anything, they come to Aly."

The vacuum pump is used to quickly clean and dry the materials in the warehouse. The Venturi vacuum used in the past produced excessive water waste because the fast-moving water required to create suction for the vacuum sent gallons of water into the sewer. With funding from the Office of Sustainable Development, the department was able to purchase five new rotary evaporator vacuum pumps for warehouses and teaching laboratories. These have saved the Department of Chemistry about 429,000 gallons of water each year.

When David Kukla '20, a junior chemistry major and warehouse assistant at the time, and now a graduate student, the idea of ​​making a change emerged, he noticed the overall inefficiency of the original pump.

"They didn't reduce the pressure to the proper pressure to actually distill off the solvent, so we actually run the instrument for a lot longer," Kukla said. "In addition, the vacuum strength of these special aspirators is not that strong, so when we turn off the vacuum pump, they can reach the correct pressure and make the process faster."

The time spent cleaning items in the laboratory has been greatly reduced, with each instrument using the new model reduced from an estimated 30 minutes to only two to three minutes.

The new vacuum cleaner also allows students in teaching laboratories to better understand what a professional setting is like. "The equipment we use in the teaching laboratory should reflect the equipment we use in research. We use higher vacuum and more powerful instruments, so I think this is more beneficial to attract students and make them interested in this process. Way," Kukla said.

For Kukla, the vision of sustainable development operates in the family. In the spring of 2019, when he entered the warehouse for the first time, Kukla noticed that the large metal barrels used to store acetone were sent to the dump when they were empty. Therefore, he decided to pass the empty drum to his father Chris Kukla for use in his artwork.

Chris Kukla is a potter who uses a process called Naked Raku, which involves taking out ceramic fragments from the kiln while it’s still hot, and then immediately Put the corpse in the sawdust. During this process, the furnace is heated to approximately 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, which can damage the metal structure after several uses. The department uses nearly 100 gallons of acetone every month, leaving a large number of empty barrels, which Kukla’s father reused as a working kiln.

Other artists now turn to Kuklas drums to reuse them for their own work.

Kukla said: "So this is a way of reuse and a bridge between art and science, because I think we usually separate the two aspects of science and art, but I always think that the best scientists are artists. The best artist is a scientist. It is very interesting to interweave the problem-solving thinking process and the creative thinking process. A bucket used to hold acetone has a second life, and then you can create a way that people can communicate A space for art."

The sustainable development practice of this department does not stop at the warehouse. Environmental protection measures are also taken to recycle more common items.

Ginger Beer is probably the first person people meet when they walk into the departmental office in Julian Hall. As an office support expert, her first-line knowledge of daily use prompted her to take more environmentally friendly measures. "I just saw all the people coming in and out here to get whiteboard markers. We flipped through boxes of whiteboard markers, and I thought,'All of this ended up in the trash,'" Bill said.

After participating in the “Green Team Forum” of the Zero Waste Office for Sustainable Development in January 2020, Beer has the motivation to eliminate unnecessary waste in the office. She decided to work with the TerraCycle program, which allows individuals to pack and ship difficult-to-recycle waste to their recycling facility instead of throwing them into the trash can.

Participants of the program purchase "zero waste" trash cans, which are used as containers for different recyclable items. In departmental offices, trash cans are used for coffee pods. As part of the collaboration with Bic, writing instruments and other daily office supplies are also collected and sent to TerraCycle. Once the bins are full, they are sent to one of the two TerraCycle delivery locations in Bloomington.

Beer has set up four bins purchased by the department in the high-traffic area of ​​Julian Hall. She has already noticed the participation of students and faculty as the box is full of markers and other office supplies.

"An office in another building has actually started sending me tag packets via inter-office mail," Bill said. "Once I walked over to pick up a box, but now most of the time they just fill up an office envelope and send it to me, and I put it in a larger box."

When asked why she started this project, she said that she wanted to do her part to eliminate waste. "There is only one planet," Bill said. "Put a box in a room with a small sign on it that says, "Recycling. It's not difficult. A small box like this can make a difference."