Recycling Matters
    Fall 1996

FEATURES:

Have a "Green" Holiday
Tips for saving resources during the holiday season.

Students Tote Recycling in Residence Halls
Dorm occupants given new totes to carry recyclables to Waste/Recycling Closets.

Office Audits Help Reduce Waste
What is an office audit, and how can they be requested?

Waste Reduction Tip: Use Post-It Fax Notes

Worms Find New Homes around Campus
Composting bins given to daring University offices.

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Recycler's Guide to Moving and Relocating on Campus

Call 763-5539 for our new brochure "Recycler's Guide to Moving and Relocating On Campus" for tips on planning a move in the least wasteful way, and how to schedule special recycling and clean out services for your department.

Ann Arbor Drop Off Station Has Moved!

Two City of Ann Arbor Drop-Off Stations have closed and been merged into a new and expanded site. The new arrangement offers expanded items and hours to the public. The new site, operated by Recycle Ann Arbor, a local non-profit, is located at 2950 East Ellsworth Road (corner of Platt and Ellsworth Roads). Site is open Weekdays, 10-5 and Saturday, 9-5. Individuals may drop off numerous recyclable materials at no charge. Bulky waste items (like furniture and building debris), appliances and automotive wastes can be disposed of for a nominal fee. Bulk or bagged compost is also sold at the site. Call 99-GREEN for information and fees.

Have a "Green" Holiday

While the holiday season brings good cheer for most people, it also brings a lot more solid waste to the local landfill. Consider these green tips for a less-wasteful (and less stressful) holiday:

Wrapping paper is often used once and thrown away. Try using colorful pages torn from magazines to wrap small gifts, and old maps or the Sunday comics for larger boxes. Or, avoid paper altogether by using reusable decorative tins, baskets or boxes. If you do buy commercial wrapping paper, look for ones made of recycled paper. Plastic bows can be substituted with reusable cloth ribbons. Finally, unwrap gifts carefully to save wrapping for reuse next year.

For tree trimmings, try edible or compostable items like popcorn or cranberries on a string, gingerbread cookies, or items made of "found" objects around your home.

If you buy gifts, look for durable or re-usable items and try to resist the latest "fad" at the mall. Look for gifts with an environmental message: a nature book, a refillable thermos bottle, canvas tote bags, items made of recycled products or a battery recharger. Look for solar powered, instead of battery powered, items. Or, ones that require no power. Sometimes the best gift is a homemade one: homebaked cookies, bread or jams, or a potted plant or tree. Or, ones that do not create waste: concert or movie tickets, or an IOU to help shovel snow or repair a leaky faucet. Or, ones that get used up: candles or seeds for next year's garden. Finally, ones that are "re-used": unique items from Ann Arbor's numerous second-hand stores.

If you are out shopping, bring your own bags and avoid coming home with armloads of plastic bags holding just one item.

No doubt you are receiving piles of mail order catalogs by now. Before recycling them, call the companies' 800 numbers and ask to be taken off their mailing list.

If you send holiday cards, look for ones made of recycled paper, and avoid ones with gold or glossy coating (these cannot be recycled.) Save the cards you receive, cut off the front pictures, and send them as holiday "postcards" next year. (This saves postage too.) With careful thought, it is possible to reduce waste and protect the environment during the holiday season.

Students Tote Recycling in Residence Halls

This fall, students checked into their residence hall rooms to find a new addition to Housing's recycling program. Each residence hall room is now provided with a recycling "tote" to supplement the regular trash can. The totes are a sporty, blue plastic bin with a handle. They were first tested in selected student rooms last winter. After favorable reviews, Housing decided to outfit all the rooms with a tote. Students are asked to separate recyclable paper and containers in their room. When the totes are full, they then bring materials to the Waste/Recycling Closet located on their residence hall floor. Each closet has a bin for paper recycling, containers recycling, and trash. Students are asked to stack cardboard and old pizza boxes on the closet shelf. Housing Facilities staff bring the recyclable materials down to the loading dock for pickup by Waste Management Services. The materials are then off to the Material Recovery Facility along with recyclables from the rest of campus. The new system is intended to be convenient for students, and is consistent with the City of Ann Arbor residential recycling program which students find when they move off campus.

Office Audits Help Reduce Waste

University offices and departments can find out how to reduce their waste by requesting a waste audit of their work area. This fall, audits were conducted in several areas by Student Recycling Assistant, Jon Kazmierski. To do an audit, Jon completes a walk-through of the building to identify wastes that can be reduced, reused or recycled. He notes the locations of waste and recycling bins, asks office staff questions about their purchasing and work habits, then writes up suggestions for the office. Waste audits were done for Hatcher and Shapiro Libraries; the Institute for Social Research; Office of Financial Aid; and Facilities, Planning and Design office. Reducing waste can translate into financial savings for your office, as well as a healthier environment. If your office is interested in a waste audit for Winter term, contact the Recycling Office at 764-2663.

Waste Reduction Tip: Use Post-It Fax Notes

Offices can reduce their consumption of paper by using Post-It fax notes instead of a full cover sheet when sending a fax. These attach like other Post-It notes to the top of your correspondence and pose no problem in the fax machine. By not sending the separate cover sheet with your fax, you not only save on paper use, but also cut down on the time and cost of sending the fax (especially long distance.) The Post-Its can be reused if you send faxes to the same recipient regularly, or can be recycled with paper on campus.

This product is available at M-Stores: Item #285158 "Pad Fax Memo Post It"

Worms Find New Homes Around Campus

This fall, nine University offices agreed to try out a worm composting bin to handle old coffee grinds and food leftovers from employee lunches. (The bins were announced in our Spring/Summer 1996 issue.) The bins are really designed to handle small quantities of food wastes, as several participants are finding out. The following offices and departments are testing out the bins for several months: Occupational Safety & Environmental Health; Purchasing Services; Business Administration; School of Natural Resources & Environment; Personnel/HRAA; Services for Students with Disabilities; Institute for the Humanities; Office of the Vice President for Research; and the School of Nursing. Student Recycling Assistant, Laurah Klepinger, visits the participant offices and keeps close watch on how the program is progressing. Waste Management is not distributing any more bins for this program at this time.

Content modified: August 6, 2001

Please direct questions and comments to Recycling (get address) (38.103.63.60).

*This website is intended for use by University of Michigan faculty, staff and students. Please keep questions limited to recycling and waste disposal within the University and Washtenaw County.

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