On-campus recycling efforts not going to waste
by Monia Coffey - Collegian Reporter

Many University of Richmond students put forth the effort to recycle by placing things in blue containers throughout campus, but some feel their efforts go to waste when they witness custodians dumping the recycling containers into trash cans. This was the case last year for some students in South Court, but Alexander Lane, manager of Custodial and Environmental Services, said this was not uncommon. "There will be some recycling that goes into the general waste," Lane said. The process by which the University recycles requires source separation where things are separated by students and faculty. If trash ends up in one of the blue containers, then the potential recyclables become contaminated and cannot be recycled. Although the University voluntarily recycles, fines are in place for recycling loads that have been contaminated.

Recycling

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Recycling is the re-use of materials that would otherwise be considered waste. Those materials can be sources from pre-consumer waste (materials used in manufacturing) or post-consumer waste (materials discarded by the consumer).

In theory, recycling would be a continuing reuse of materials for the same purpose, but in practice much recycling extends the useful life of a material, but in a less versatile form. For example, as paper is recycled, the fibers shorten, making it less useful for higher grade papers. Other materials can suffer from contamination, making them unsuitable for food packaging.

Recycling is an important alternative to thorwing rubbish away. Many man made products are not easily biodegradeable and so take up space in rubbish pits. Interestingly, silly putty, which is a waste product of the process to create rubber, is one of the most resilent materials to biodegrading yet it sold over $6 million in it's first year alone.

Articles about, or including aspects of, recycling:

See also: