2008 Woodie Awards
Fruition for recycling project
Mike McDonald - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 8/28/08 Section: Metro
Students will have a new place to dump empty pop bottles and plastic food containers this semester, because the UI's waste characterization sorting project is almost complete.
Several members of the student-run Environmental Coalition spent their first few days back on campus unpacking two large pallets and slapping stickers on the sides of 150 recycling bins that arrived this summer.
The blue bins - intended only for plastics - represent the culmination of the yearlong project.
"To get the bins was a celebration," said Tim Knab, a member of the Environmental Coalition. "To get them labeled was another."
Last fall, with the assistance of UI Facilities Management, the student organization conducted its research by sifting through mounds of UI trash. The daylong analysis revealed that roughly 50 percent of the university's waste is recyclable - and the majority is plastic.
As a result of the project, the National Recycling Coalition awarded the university a grant to buy the recycling bins, valued at $14,000.
So far, about one-third of the plastic receptacles have been labeled and strategically placed next to trash cans in UI buildings for easy accessibility. Knab said that location of the bins was crucial, and he is confident people will use them.
UI freshman Rachel Hughes said she thinks the project will be useful.
"I will definitely use [the bins]," she said. "It's nice to have somewhere to put [plastics]."
Many of the newer buildings - such as the Adler Journalism and Pappajohn Business Buildings - already have receptacles for plastic. So the project's focus will be on older UI buildings, said Rachel Nathanson, a member of the Environmental Coalition.
Indoor recycling bins are now available at the Main Library, and they will soon appear in Pentacrest buildings as well as the UI Hospitals and Clinics. Several outdoor containers arrived two weeks ago will be labeled and distributed in the following weeks.
As an incentive for custodians to properly dispose of the plastics, each building will get to keep the 5-cent deposits that come with the return of each container.
Dave Jackson, the assistant to the associate vice president for Facilities Management, was a key figure in helping the university obtain the grant, and he is enthusiastic about the work Environmental Coalition has done in the first week of classes.
"This will ultimately help the UI reduce its environmental footprint," he said. "That's something the Environmental Coalition and everyone on campus can feel good about."
E-mail DI reporter Mike McDonald at:
michael-d-mcdonald@uiowa.edu
Several members of the student-run Environmental Coalition spent their first few days back on campus unpacking two large pallets and slapping stickers on the sides of 150 recycling bins that arrived this summer.
The blue bins - intended only for plastics - represent the culmination of the yearlong project.
"To get the bins was a celebration," said Tim Knab, a member of the Environmental Coalition. "To get them labeled was another."
Last fall, with the assistance of UI Facilities Management, the student organization conducted its research by sifting through mounds of UI trash. The daylong analysis revealed that roughly 50 percent of the university's waste is recyclable - and the majority is plastic.
As a result of the project, the National Recycling Coalition awarded the university a grant to buy the recycling bins, valued at $14,000.
So far, about one-third of the plastic receptacles have been labeled and strategically placed next to trash cans in UI buildings for easy accessibility. Knab said that location of the bins was crucial, and he is confident people will use them.
UI freshman Rachel Hughes said she thinks the project will be useful.
"I will definitely use [the bins]," she said. "It's nice to have somewhere to put [plastics]."
Many of the newer buildings - such as the Adler Journalism and Pappajohn Business Buildings - already have receptacles for plastic. So the project's focus will be on older UI buildings, said Rachel Nathanson, a member of the Environmental Coalition.
Indoor recycling bins are now available at the Main Library, and they will soon appear in Pentacrest buildings as well as the UI Hospitals and Clinics. Several outdoor containers arrived two weeks ago will be labeled and distributed in the following weeks.
As an incentive for custodians to properly dispose of the plastics, each building will get to keep the 5-cent deposits that come with the return of each container.
Dave Jackson, the assistant to the associate vice president for Facilities Management, was a key figure in helping the university obtain the grant, and he is enthusiastic about the work Environmental Coalition has done in the first week of classes.
"This will ultimately help the UI reduce its environmental footprint," he said. "That's something the Environmental Coalition and everyone on campus can feel good about."
E-mail DI reporter Mike McDonald at:
michael-d-mcdonald@uiowa.edu
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