Community Recycling Bins Return!

We are pleased to announce the return of the community recycling bins!

 

The community bins are used heavily by businesses, homes, and numerous locations where curb-side recycling is not available. The bins provide three options for recycling: glass, cardboard, and single stream. For those of you who don’t know, the single stream option means you can put all of your recyclables into one bag— making recycling much simpler and more convenient!  

 

 

The community bins are located behind the Service and Supply building on campus, at the intersection of University Blvd. and Russellville Road (diagonal to the baseball fields). If you live or work off-campus and don’t have curb-side recycling, we hope you’ll take advantage of these bins. They are, after all, here for you!

With Recycled Love,

WKU Recycling & Surplus

Why Should You Recycle?

It’s a fair question. In today’s fast paced world, we are constantly thinking of only one thing: the present. Our generation has grown to expect instant gratification; breaking news arrives instantly to our iPhones, Jimmy John’s promises to deliver lunch in just minutes. Sometimes we think about the future— like our relationships, or what our post-graduation plans are. But overall, any time we think of the future it’s all about us, isn’t it? We complain more about fuel prices than the imminent fact that one day, fuel will run out. But instead of getting involved, we ignore— or even deny— environmental problems, placing all the weight and responsibility on radicals and “Hippies.” The reality is, we’re all suffocating under the enormous weight of environmental waste.

 

You may think that your waste doesn’t matter. What’s a few soda cans or plastic bags going to do to the environment? In truth, though, we all leave a trail of waste that— combined with the other 312 million people living in America— has the power to do serious damage. This is called your carbon footprint, which is caused by the consumption of fossil fuels—such as coal, oil, natural gas, and petroleum. These fossil fuels are used daily to heat our houses, cook our meals, and make our cars run. The problem is they’re not renewable— they will run out. While we don’t suggest you stop heating your home or cooking meals, we do suggest cutting down your driving time by carpooling, walking, or biking. The option for these nonrenewable resources is to cut down consumption, but that isn’t true about all of our resources. Luckily, we have another option. Some resources are renewable, such as paper, aluminum, tin, and most plastics. That means that things we throw away daily— plastic bottles, soda cans, canned food, scrap papers— can be reused again.

 

 

Not only does this benefit the environment, it saves money that would’ve been spent putting these materials into a landfill.Recycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions from solid waste, and decreases the use of fossil fuel energies used to produce new materials.  The way our campus handles waste and promotes sustainability will influence the city of Bowing Green, the state of Kentucky, the country, and eventually, the entire world.

 

A truck full of cardboard heading to the on-campus compactor to be recycled.

So, why should you recycle at WKU? Because the waste you accumulate does influence our campus, not to mention the environment. You have a carbon footprint that grows bigger with every cardboard box and soda can you throw in the dumpster. Your influence alone can help make WKU a more sustainable campus. Recycling is just a small way that you can contribute back to your campus, your home, and the environment. With over 150 single-stream recycling containers scattered around campus, not to mention the recycling bins provided to each dorm room and classroom, it’s impossible to find an excuse not to recycle. 

 

Start this year off right by remembering this: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Save money, help the environment, and reduce your carbon footprint just by recycling? Yes! It’s that easy.

With Recycled Love,
WKU Recycling and Surplus

VAMPY Visits, and Surplus Receives Interesting Items

Today, our department hosted a fieldtrip for 7th -- 10th grade students of VAMPY (Verbally and Mathematically Precocious Youth). The students could only choose one course to study, and some chose sustainability! Our staff spent the morning setting up for the event.

The Recycling and Surplus Coordinator, Sara, explained to the students how our department runs recycling for WKU's campus. She continued by explaining how the new surplus program helps save WKU money (and helps the environment!).

Sara leading a question and answer session about recycling and
sustainability with the VAMPY students.

Apart from knowledge, the students also took home a free water bottle and t-shirt from WKU's Earth Day (which was April 16). Like most students, they were excited to receive the freebies!

An Earth Day t-shirt and water bottle
that was given to each VAMPY student.

In Surplus news, we received some interesting items from the Health Services building: an electrosurgical generator and a container full of crutches! We never know what kind of items we're going to receive, but we always have fun trying to find creative ways to reuse them on campus.

With Recycled Love,

WKU Recycling and Surplus 

Cardboard Drive Recycles Tons... Literally!

Over the past two weeks, WKU students have been returning to their dorms with heads ready for learning, and hands full of... cardboard?

Despite the busyness of a new semester, students, parents, and faculty have graciously been donating their cardboard for recycling. Our recycling crew set-up cardboard bins outside every dorm, for a total of 13 bins we were responsible for.

Rachel Hoge, a student worker, is pictured maintaining a

cardboard container outside of Minton Hall.

Our crew collected cardboard throughout the day... and every collection was strenuous. In order to correctly recycle the cardboard, we removed all packaging materials and broke down each individual box. As shown below, our trucks were quickly brimming with recycling.

 When our trucks became this full, we'd haul everything to the compactor. Compacting one load would take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, which made it difficult to keep up with overflowing cardboard.

Zach Brumback, a student worker, is pictured hauling cardboard to the compactor.

  But when it all the move-in days were done, we knew all the labor had been worth it. We successfully diverted 6.9 tons of cardboard from landfill dumpsters!

We appreciate all the efforts of the grounds crew, HRL, and all the parents and students who participated. You've all truly made a difference!

With Recycled Love,

The WKU Recycling Crew