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[previous article] [next article]Purdue University has been recycling for nearly 20 years, mainly in salvageable metals stored at the University warehouses in Lafayette. A private contractor, Casssini Brothers, strips metal from machinery and equipment and saves the salvaged metal until market prices are at their highest. Over the years, the income generated by selling the salvaged metal has paid operational expenses for the contractor and has returned money to Purdue.
Paper recycling started in 1985 when Purdue Student Government's Environmental Action Department set out 55-gallon drums in a few locations (mostly terminal rooms) around campus for collection of both computer and office paper, as well as newspapers. Those dozen or so spots have now grown to over sixty locations, including many inside academic and administrative buildings.
Today. . . in addition to those collection spots, 28 buildings are currently set up with central collection points for office paper. The used office paper is gathered by Purdue's custodial staff and emptied into our collection carts or barrels. The contents of these carts and barrels are collected by the Purdue Recycling truck and prepared for shipment to L&J Waste Paper's processing plant in Peru, Indiana.
Central location collection points will be coming to MSEE this Spring with the carts set up at the building's rear docks. Other buildings within the Schools of Engineering will be put "on line" later this year in a continuing effort to reduce the amount of waste being hauled to the Lafayette trash transfer station and the Logansport landfill. This reduction in waste stream will result in the savings of thousands of dollars weekly to Purdue in trash tipping fees.
Recycling at Purdue is a way to meet the waste reduction guidelines mandated by the Indiana General Assembly in the 1990 session. The lawmakers require that 35% of Indiana's waste stream be recycled into useful material for reuse or new products by 1996. The mandate increases to 50% of the Hoosier waste stream by 2001.
Purdue Office Paper Guidelines We consider "office paper" to be any paper, white or color, used in a copier, laser printer or typewriter (single sheets). This includes carbonless forms such as Physical Plant Form 18-A, yellow 8x11-inch lined paper used for math projects and SCM Advantage white and yellow notepads available in the General Stores Catalog.
Purdue Recycling CANNOT Accept L&J Waste Paper cannot market recycled paper products containing water-insoluble glues; therefore, we are not currently collecting these material. This means that Post-It notes, pressure- sensitive labels, ream paper wrappers, and envelopes of any kind cannot be accepted. Also unacceptable is any kind of slick or coated paper (i.e. thermal fax paper and magazines).
Aluminum beverage cans are currently being recycled by student groups and marketed through Alcoa Recycling. This arrangement allows these groups to reap the economic benefits of this recycling effort. If the University were to handle aluminum recycling, the money generated would go back into Purdue's general fund to help pay for expenses related to a university- operated can recycling collection program.
If you have any recycling-related questions, please call Purdue Recycling at 40194. (Sorry, we don't have the latest in technology such as computerized mailboxes). Thanks in advance for your cooperation in and commitment to saving our precious natural resources as well as limited University operating funds that would otherwise be used to pay Waste Management for burying our trash forever!
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