Waste and Recycling employees dig deep to find student's lost art projects
When junior Muni Pandey returned to her desk in Cowgill Hall after a January snowstorm, she was alarmed to discover that two of her design projects were gone — accidentally taken out with the trash. They came back through the efforts of Waste and Recycling employees who refused to let a student’s hard work disappear without a fight.
In coordination with the Division of Facilities’ customer service team, Teresa Sweeney, waste and recycling manager, and William "Billy" Eason, waste and recycling coordinator, leaned into the division’s Care and Serve mission to find and return the design projects to Pandey.
"Customer service in facilities management isn't just about maintaining our spaces,” said Jamie Lau, director of customer service. “It's about nurturing relationships, creating environments where people thrive, and ensuring that every experience on our campus leaves a lasting impression of excellence."
The customer service team communicates with Facilities Operations shops and teams and Blacksburg campus customers — ranging from faculty, staff, and students to visitors — to improve quality assurance, identify customer interactions, unify operations, and reinforce a service-oriented culture throughout the division.
Pandey, an industrial design student, learned that her projects were mistakenly discarded after they were moved aside during routine cleanup and then assumed to be unclaimed.
Noticing that a significant amount of trash had accumulated in the Cowgill Hall dumpster, Pandey first attempted to sort through some of the reachable bags and materials in the cold temperatures, but was unsuccessful. Pandey decided to reach out to the division’s Waste and Recycling team to see if someone could help.
“From the moment I reached out, Teresa remained in nonstop communication with me throughout the day,” said Pandey. “At no point did she treat my situation as inconvenient or trivial. Not once did she suggest that I give up, even though many people around me had already told me that the projects had probably gone too deep in the dumpster.”
Sweeney and Eason physically assessed the situation at the Cowgill Hall dumpster. They searched the dumpster themselves, sifting through material and breaking down cardboard. Unable to identify the design projects, they alerted the customer service team to create a service request ticket and escalate the effort.
The team arranged for the dumpster container to be moved and emptied. The contents were compacted and transported to the Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority transfer station, to be unloaded onto the floor and manually searched. Finally, the design projects were identified and recovered.
“Teresa and Billy chose to meet me at Surge [Space Building], which is closer to my apartment, so I would not have to walk long distances on icy sidewalks or risk falling,” said Pandey. “Billy helped carefully place the projects into multiple trash bags, taking extra time to organize and protect the pieces rather than rushing. When I struggled to fit one of the sculptural components into a bag, both Teresa and Billy stayed with me patiently until I was able to secure everything so I wasn't left alone after they drove away.”
Customer service is embedded into the division’s mission and highlighted through the sincere efforts of the Waste and Recycling team.
“Teresa and Billy genuinely embodied Care and Serve in every sense of the phrase, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have been supported by people who care so deeply about the individuals on this campus,” said Pandey. “Everyone in my studio design program was in shock when I showed them that I got my project back.”
The intentional care displayed by the waste and recycling team impacts the experience of campus stakeholders and creates a tangible example of goodwill that will continue to propel the customer service program to new heights.
“I am so deeply grateful. This truly feels like a miracle,” said Pandey. “They went far beyond what anyone could reasonably expect.”
“Through continual assessment and adaptation on how we deliver services, we strive to exceed the client experience,” said Lau. “The waste and recycling team’s response reflects the customer service mindset at the heart of our Care and Serve mission.”
