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Recycling In Our Communities

Residence Life Recycling provides a variety of services to the students in the residence halls and La Aldea apartments at The University of Arizona. This page illustrates how recycling works in our communities.

Recycling Do's and Dont's for 2009

  1. Plastic bottles must be empty. Please do not throw away water. Feel free to water the plants. Empty sodas, milk, food containers, etc., in sink or trash (food scraps). Plastic cups for smoothies and coffee drinks are especially problematic, and need to be empty; if not, throw them in the trash!
  2. Cans can all be placed in the aluminum containers; all aluminum and steel cans get sorted. Please empty food cans and pour out liquids in aluminum cans.
  3. Paper and chipboard all go in the paper bins. Chipboard is cereal boxes, tissue boxes, most food boxes, etc., and is much thinner than cardboard (yet thicker than paper). Empty boxes of all contents like wax paper, plastic wrapping, etc.
  4. Cardboard alone isn’t much of a problem, but packing cardboard boxes full of trash and recyclables is. Please empty all packing materials (except Styrofoam) into the trash. Many boxes contain Styrofoam peanuts; it’s important to bag these up. On a windy day, these can get out of control and are very bad for the environment.
  5. Styrofoam is the only material that gets recycled locally. It’s used in making building materials. After move-in, Styrofoam can be put in the cardboard bins. There are some types of foam packing we do not recycle, including: plastic foam (white, shiny, and does not break or tear), gray plastic-covered foam, and packing peanuts (please bag them up). Cups are hard because they get so much food and beverage waste in them. If it’s pristine, recycle it, if not, throw it away.
  6. Glass is not recycled on campus; please put glass in the trash. The reason we do not recycle glass is because Risk Management says no. Any other questions about glass recycling should be directed to them.
  7. Mixed bags of recycling often get thrown away. Residence Life Recycling does not have time to sort recycling. We have 23 buildings and 5 offices, 2 university employees, 2 student employees, and community service workers to help get the job done. We provide containers for students to separate their own recycling. Our job is to collect the containers we provide to the students and employees!
  8. Have pride about where you live, if you see a trash or recycling container full, don’t pile on more trash and recycling! There are multiple containers in most buildings, try to go to another or wait a day to see if they are emptied. We are putting out more boxes and recycling areas where needed and will consider adding more.
  9. Plastic wrap and grocery bags: plastic wrapping is not recyclable; there are no companies that purchase or accept plastic wrap. Even if it’s put in the recycling, we pull out 95% of it and throw it away. This is one of the main things that slows down our crews and makes it take longer to get to your building. Grocery bag recycling take-a-bag, leave-a-bag boxes were provided last year, unsuccessfully. At the end of the last school year we had many boxes of mixed bags overflowing. These bags were not recycled. This will be done by students, if it is done at all this year. We will only do this if students are accountable for collecting on a biweekly basis and remove all bags before the end of the year. Students interested in following through with this all year can contact Jill Burchell at burchell@life.arizona.edu for more information.
  10. Return five-gallon water jugs to Sparkletts or the company that they were purchased from. We would like to establish an area at every building to put empty bottles. More on this soon!
  11. And remember, the choices you make as a consumer affect the amount of trash and recycling that you make! Someone who purchases 5 gallon water bottles and reuses a 20 oz. recyclable bottle daily is creating far less recycling than someone who buys flats of 24 plastic bottles of water. You can make a difference!

Totes

 

 

Every student living in a residence hall and La Aldea graduate apartments has a recycling tote to use for the collection of recyclable materials in his/her room. The tote is the property of The University of Arizona. If a tote is broken or lost, the student will be charged a $10.00 replacement fee.

 


Bins

When your recycling tote is full, you can take it to the nearest recycling bin. Bins are centralized recycling areas located in every hall/apartment complex and they are emptied by the Residence Life Recycling field staff. You will see either the green recycling center, or the white cardboard bins.

 

Click here to get a list of where the bins in your hall are located.


photo of an eco board


Eco-Boards

Every Residence Hall has a designated eco-board with events, information and contact information. Here's where your hall board is located.

Recycling Schedule

Our staff usually picks up recyclable materials from each hall once or twice a week.

Recycling Guidlines

Residence Life Recycling has a variety of restrictions and provisions for the materials that are recycled at the UA. Please consult the Recycling Guidelines, so that you know what can and can't be recycled in the halls. Please do not contaminate the bins by placing materials in them that do not belong there. If contamination and personal trash are found in the bins, then your whole floor could be charged for this inconvenience.

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