Facilities & Operations – Lane Hall
Celebrating the Person Behind Lane Hall’s U-M Race to Zero Waste Win
“It is a community, from Lane Hall, from facility services, from the top all the way down to us, the hands-on people, if you just trust the process, good things happen.”
Nestled on the corner of E Washington and S State Streets sits a beautiful red brick building – Lane Hall. The building is nearly 40,000 gross square feet, is home to U-M Women’s and Gender Studies departments, and boasts a welcoming presence, thanks to U-M custodian Archie Criglar Jr.
His building, Lane Hall, won U-M’s 2025 Race to Zero Waste competition with a diversion rate of 83% and had a yearly diversion rate of 71% in 2024, the highest of any LSA building by 11%. To put this into perspective, the average yearly diversion rate for the Ann Arbor campus sat around 37% in 2024. And this isn’t the first time Lane Hall has been in the spotlight for waste diversion. Archie recalls, “we got first place in 2018, second place in 2020, but once you see those plaques come in, you care a bit more and take extra effort.” To keep a diversion rate that high, you will often find Archie going through waste streams in Lane Hall, where he doesn’t “just take things for face value, I do take the time to actually look inside… and put it in the proper spot before I dispose of it.”
Archie believes the biggest challenge to clean waste streams is people not knowing how to recycle properly. But believes that “a little bit of education goes a long way. People see the enthusiasm that I have, and it kind of bleeds off on them.” As a reminder: Plastic coffee cups need to be emptied before being recycled, and their lids go in the landfill (non-compostable paper cups go in the landfill as well). If you aren’t sure where your waste should go, consult U-M’s Where To Throw tool. If you’re in a pinch and aren’t sure where to put your waste, when in doubt, throw it out.
But when it comes to waste diversion, Archie knows that “it goes more than just digging through the trash, [it’s] talking to people, communication, education, it’s an involved process.” When he receives new information from U-M’s Custodial Leadership team, he’s always sure to get it to building occupants. While he says Lane Hall is normally on top of it, if he notices recurring contaminated waste streams, he’ll bring it up with his building occupants to work on a solution. Adding, “If it’s not coming from us, who are the front line, who might they hear it from?”
In addition to his full-time job at U-M, Archie is finishing up his degree in Human Resource Management from Eastern Michigan University. During his educational journey, he was able to take a course in environmental science, which he says “put me into a better space of what it means to go green, [what I learn] I tell some of that to them too.” Not only does Archie share information about waste diversion at U-M, but his knowledge on the importance of reusables and the impact of our food and wasted food. Archie’s biggest piece of advice to the campus community; understand your impact. He says, “understanding that this is a big campus, so we can either leave a big carbon footprint or we can leave a little as we can carbon footprint. I’m trying to do my part in my building, so I take pride in it.”
During this Earth Month (and beyond), we’re striving to match the energy and enthusiasm that Archie Criglar Jr. has. Next time you’re in Lane Hall, be sure to wave hello and send a thank you his way!
