| Where can I recycle? What can be recycled? Why can everything be recycled together? How can I tell if my plastic is recyclable? How does recycling work at Loyola? Does one piece of trash in the recycling bin really matter? Why should I recycle?
How did this program get started? What else can I do? For more information about Recycling and Conservation Click Here
Where can I recycle? Almost anywhere! Bins are located in both Primo's and Boulder Garden Cafe, in the residence halls, computer labs, the entrance hallways of the campus buildings, and scattered about the campus; dumpsters are in the parking lots behind the residence halls and other locations on campus, too.
(return to top) What can be recycled? CLEAN PRIMOS CONTAINERS CAN NOW BE RECYCLED!!! All cups can be recycled with straws and tops on them. Please dump out remaining liquid before recycling. - Aluminum cans, metal (soup) cans, glass bottles, and plastic marked 1 through 7.
Paper (including office paper, newspapers, cardboard boxes). Rechargeable batteries including Nickel cadmium, Nickel metal hydride and Lithium-Ion batteries used in cell phones, cameras and other electronic devices as well as old toner cartridges can be recycled in the computer labs. (Alkaline batteries currently cannot be recycled). Click here for a table summary of battery recycling. Printer Cartridges can be brought to Technology Service Center in Knott Hall 002.
Why can everything be recycled together? Papers, cardboard, plastics, aluminum, glass, and metal cans can now be recycled together because of the company Waste Management. They sort out all recyclables at the facility, making it easier for students and faculty at Loyola to recycle. The catch is that contamination is still a problem, so when you recycle, try to keep your paper and cardboard in a separate bag from your other recyclables. This will ensure that your effort to recycle pays off. Don't stop recycling because you think that one piece of trash will contaminate the entire bin, because it won't. Waste management sorts through the recycling containers at the plant so that they can maximize the waste retrieved. This does not mean throw your trash into the recycling containers, just be aware that one person's careless action will not make your recycling efforts pointless.
(return to top)
How can I tell if my plastic is recyclable?  ALL LABELED PLASTICS CAN NOW BE RECYCLED. CLEAN plastics with the numbers 1 through 7 written in the recycling symbol can now be recycled. This means that dining containers, including plastic salad containers, soup containers be recycled. If the container is contaminated with food and you do NOT want to rinse it out, please throw it in the trash, otherwise it might contaminate the bag. As a rule: RINSE BEFORE YOUR RECYCLE!!
(return to top) How does recycling work at Loyola? Drop your recyclables in the appropriate container: There are separate bins for paper and commingled on campus. Commingled is (cans, glass, plastic bottles and containers). Paper and Plastics can be put into the same Recycling Dumpster throughout campus. This is because the commingled and paper are sorted at the Waste Management Facility On the quad and in academic buildings, environmental service technicians empty the containers into clear plastic bags. Those bags are picked up at a central location near the building by the grounds trash truck along with trash in black bags. Recyclables are separated from the trash and placed in the proper recycling dumpster up at physical plant. In Residence Halls, there are Recycling Dumpsters near every trash dumpster. If you put all your recyclables in these dumpsters, they will be recycled. The recycling dumpsters are picked up by the trash hauling company Waste Management and taken to the recycling center where they are sorted thoroughly.
(return to top) Does one piece of trash in the recycling bin really matter? Yes and no. In the residence hall recycling dumpsters, one piece of trash will not contaminate the entire bin. Waste Management has made the effort to maximize recycling's effectiveness by sorting extensively at the plant. However, if they find that the recycling containers have more than 5% trash in them, they may eventually stop collecting the bins. We will let residence halls know if this problem arises. On the quad, because of the clear bags, the environmental service employees may throw away what should be recycled because of too much trash in the bags. Make sure to respect the efforts of others by taking an extra few seconds to throw trash in the trash can.
(return to top) Why should I recycle? It takes just as much effort to actually throw your bottle or can in the appropriate bin as it does to throw it in the trash. If you don't recycle, a lot of energy is being lost. Tossing away an aluminum can wastes as much energy as pouring out half of that can's volume of gasoline. And making new aluminum cans from used cans takes 95% less energy. Twenty recycled cans can be made with the energy needed to produce one can using virgin ore. Also, there is the issue of the materials themselves. Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet. It takes at least 200 years for that aluminum to completely decompose in a landfill. Considering that the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island is the largest man-made structure--even larger than the Great Wall of China--it makes more sense to recycle that aluminum instead of having it just waste space.
(return to top) How did this program get started? The current incarnation of the recycling program began in January 2002. Originally, bins were placed in target locations such as Butler Hall and Hammerman House, the basement of Knott Hall, and outside of the Boulder Garden Cafe. Dumpsters were located in the parking lots of Newman Towers and Butler Hall. Since then, the program has grown to bins in over 30 locations and dumpsters in most parking lots.
(return to top) What else can I do on campus to help the environment, besides recycle? There's a lot you can do--and most of it is simple, like turning off unused lights to save electricity, conserving water, and printing and writing on both sides of a piece of paper. Conserving electricity and water also help keep room and board costs down. Some ways of helping can even save you money: with your Nalgene bottle, or any reusable water bottle, you can fill up at Boulder Garden or Primo's for only $.99, and if you bring your own mug to Surfin' Joes, you can get a discounted cup of coffee. Also you get a 20 cent discount when you use your reusable plate at Primos and Boulder. (The reusable plates were distributed in the first week of February, 2005 and to Freshmen at check-in). If you want to be more actively involved, you can always join Roots and Shoots, an organization dedicated to helping the environment, animals, and people. A link to the R&S website can be found under "Get Involved!" in the navigation menu. (return to top)
| |
