Recycling at DePaul:

September 2006 issue

Does DePaul recycle? I have worked here for many years, and have been told repeatedly that the university recycles from what we throw away. But now I am learning that some departments have recycling bins provided by the university. Is this available to all areas? Does the university have plans to institute a comprehensive recycling program?

Response

Source: Bob Janis
Title: Vice President for Facility Operations
Unit/Department: Facility Operations

Response: DePaul in fact does recycle, and the in-plant recycling effort that extracts large amounts of recyclables out of the general waste stream is more than just a rumor.

Our waste and recycling vendor, one in the same, extracts glass, plastics, and aluminum, mainly, out of daily trash via a line sorting method. They pull out literally 90% of all of this product via this method--a much higher rate than individual containers produce. We pull quantities of paper from mostly dry bags as well.

The above said, we do collect recyclables separately via container collectors scattered across campus. This helps us to recycle more paper, and makes getting some of the other materials just a little bit easier and cleaner. We are considering adding more of these containers around campus. Look for them over the coming year or so. In the meantime rest assured that we are doing our share and more around recycling--just because it is not as noticeable as hundreds of bins does not mean we're not doing it and doing a good job of it.

By the way, the real story the behind the bins placed around campus is tied to our quest to help educate some people around recycling. This came as a request from a student group several years ago, and we were happy to oblige. This is the same student group, by the way, that became believers that in-plant recycling works after they toured our vendor's plant.