Campus Update on Recycling and Composting

The results from our first month of the school year are in. For the month of September, HWS recycled 32,180 lbs, up about 4,000 lbs from the same period the previous year. That is a 2 ton increase. While it is just one month of data, we believe it shows the addition of 1100 recycling bins and increased education is having an impact. But we know we can still do much better and we will!

All food waste from Saga is now being composted - about a TON per week! This is material that used to go to the landfill and is now being turned into a rich soil amendment. The totes are located behind Saga. Any living group that wants to compst, can use these totes as well.

For the month of September, our trash to recyclable ratio was 21.2%, a full 3 percentage points above the same period last year. There are two ways to improve this ratio: increase recycling or reducing waste. We're working on both!

There is still confusion about how our recycling on campus works. Here's a refresher - Pitch it ALL in One Bin! All recyclables go in the blue bin: paper, newspaper, junk mail, can, plastics labeled 1-7 on the bottom, paperbacks, telephone books, and cardboard. You can recycle more than you think!