The CU Environmental Center will be celebrating 30 years of on-campus recycling with a Recycling Festival from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Wednesday at the UMC Fountain.
The festival will display recycled-art pieces from students, a display on the housing and dining compost systems and more. The event will also have African drummers.
“This event is to create awareness that our recycling program is still going strong and to emphasize that we have been doing this for 30 years,” said Dan Baril, the recycling program manager with the Environmental Center.
While recycling bins and centers are found everywhere on campus, it may be difficult for students living off campus to know how, where and what they can recycle.
In the city of Boulder, Western Disposal Services is responsible for hauling both trash and recycling. They have an extensive recycling program available to residents, although some students might not be aware of them.
“Renters need to contact their landlords to see what type of services they have for the property,” said Bryce Isaacson, the vice president of sales and marketing for Western.
Most rental units should have bins already available for their tenants. According to Baril, however, there has been bad communication between tenants and landlords in the past.
“A Boulder City Ordinance requires all multi-family units to have recycling and trash bins for tenants," Isaacson said. "Sometimes landlords will be charged for services but not have containers for their tenants. These tenants need to pressure (landlords) to provide containers.”
Another problem is students don’t know when their recycling pick-up day is because of a lack communication from the landlord.
“In that case they can just call us and ask when that is,” Isaacson said.
A calendar with the different pick up days for commingled containers and mixed papers is available on Western’s Web site www.westerndisposal.com.
What can you recycle?
Off-campus hauler Western provides customers with two bins for recycled goods: one labeled ‘Co-Mingled Containers’ and the other ‘Mixed Papers’.
| Co-Mingled Containers | |
| YES | NO |
| -Glass, bottles and jars -Aluminum, tin and steel cans -Drink boxes – #1 and #2 plastic bottles and jars -Lean aluminum foil -Empty aerosols cans -Paper milk cartons -Metal lids/caps that are removed |
-Plastic bags -Styrofoam -Juice bags or pouches -Light bulbs -Drinking glasses -Dishes or mirrors -Rx/vitamin bottles |
| Mixed Papers |
| YES |
| -Newspaper and newspaper inserts -Corrugated cardboard and brown paper bags -Magazines and catalogs -Phone books -Large paperboard items (such as cereal boxes, shoe boxes, large gift boxes, egg cartons) -Office paper and opened mail -Large cardboard boxes are acceptable as well but must be flattened |
