The Outdoor Recreation Center is a program housed within Campus Recreation. Determined to minimize their own waste contribution to the landfill, Outdoor Recreation brainstormed ways they could make their operation even more environmentally friendly. Having already implemented a composting system through the Compost Cats program, they have decided to also introduce Terracycle bins to further ensure their waste is properly sorted and goes through the recycling process. Due to items such as batteries and plastic film not being accepted in traditional recycle bins, the Terracycle bins help to ensure they are recycling traditionally nonrecyclable items. Terracycle allows them to take things that would otherwise go to the landfill and divert them to Terracycle to take care of instead. The Outdoor Recreation Terracycle project as a whole is an overhaul of how Outdoor Recreation handles their waste. By integrating Terracycle bins and teaching the staff proper sorting, the center will be able to further reduce waste going into the landfill. There will be three different types of Terracycle bins placed in the center: batteries, laminated paper packaging, and plastic packaging.
The team at Outdoor Recreation has successfully diverted nearly 25 pounds of traditionally un-recyclable waste from the landfill and towards the TerraCycle program. The project managers educated all Outdoor Recreation staff on recycling practices depending on the types of material in question. Through providing education on proper use of the TerraCycle program, staff have all been able to become more effective advocates for sustainability.
The only setback to note was that two boxes were unknowingly disposed of by the custodial staff from the South Recreation Center, so that data was unfortunately lost. In the future, the team will do a more thorough job of notifying the staff from South Recreation concerning their sustainability program.
