UW Recycling has received 33 new collection bins for corrugated cardboard.
The new bins will allow the recycling operation to replace older bins for collecting cardboard and place bins at additional locations, including the north side of the Anthropology Building, the south side of the Information Technology Center and east of Spanish Walk apartments. The new bins are four-yard green dumpsters with a slotted lid so the cardboard must be flattened to insert into the bin.
Currently there are no signs on the bins but signage will be added indicating: "NO TRASH Corrugated Cardboard Only."
"Please use garbage dumpsters for trash as these cardboard bins are emptied by hand," says Tod Scott, manager of UW Recycling. "It is unsafe and unsanitary for the recycling staff to pick through trash to collect cardboard, and trash can contaminate the cardboard making it unsuitable for recycling."
In the 2008-2009 academic year, UW Recycling collected 210,120 pounds of corrugated cardboard. In 2009-2010, cardboard collection increased to 303,641 pounds.
"We hope that the addition of these new bins will increase our collections to over 450,000 pounds and keep this recyclable material out of the landfill, saving natural resources and money," Scott says.
Recycling one ton of cardboard saves three tons of wood pulp. It also saves the equivalent of 3,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, or 23 percent of the energy needed to process one ton of corrugated cardboard from fresh wood pulp.
For more information about sustainability efforts at UW, visit www.uwyo.edu/sustainability.
