Gettysburg College, PA Recycling Program

Type: Program

Status: Launched in 1998

Source File: http://www.gettysburg.edu/about/offices/fa/facilities/recycling.dot

Description:

Gettysburg College began recycling in 1998.

Since then, we have continually improved our program. We now recycle:

Paper — white, colored, glossy, newspapers, magazines, envelopes, notebooks, paper bags, paperback books, junk mail, thin cardboard (cereal boxes)

Aluminum cans

Glass bottles

Plastic bottles — #1 and #2

Batteries — drop in the collection box next to the mailroom in the CUB

Printer cartridges — envelopes are located in academic buildings and the Post Office

Cardboard boxes — place next to the trash cans in residence hall trash rooms

Phone books, hardback books — drop off at Facilities Services in the West Building

Car batteries, oil from campus vehicles — West Building

Successes

• Our recycling programming earned the statewide Waste Watchers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Reuse.
• The College assigned one individual from the Grounds Crew to focus on campus recycling and deal with contamination and daily collection.
• The United Way of Adams County and Gettysburg College join forces every May to collect items from students during moveout for our Give It Up for Good sale, which annually raises some $15,000 for United Way and removes more than 20 tons of material from the waste stream.
• The Recycling Department paired with the Environmental Studies Department's Student Organic Garden project to institute a campus composting program.

Avoiding contamination
If you throw trash into a paper or commingled recycling bin, then the entire contents of that bin are considered contaminated by the recycling service, and consequently must be thrown out. Please do not contaminate Gettysburg College's recycling. Appropriately use the trash and recycling bins. Please read bins' labels to determine what is recyclable at Gettysburg College and deposit items appropriately.

Residential recycling
All residential rooms on campus are provided with recycling containers to gather paper and commingle items, allowing easier separation into the appropriate recycling receptacles located in each building's trash room. First-year rooms are also provided with a sorting attachment specifically for paper and upper class apartments are provided with a sorting bin specifically for bottles/cans so that the separation process is that much simpler, encouraging healthy recycling habits. These containers are a permanent component of campus dorm rooms for which students are responsible. Missing bins will result in a fine.

Energy
Efforts to reduce energy consumption are constantly underway. Compact fluorescent light bulbs and motion sensors have been installed throughout campus to increase efficiency, while campus-wide campaigns seek to inform our community of appropriate habits. A voluntary light pledge encourages conscientious private energy use (see links), and information distributed to staff promotes attentive departmental policies.

Composting
Campus Composting program was initiated during Summer 2006 in conjunction with the Gettysburg College Student Garden (see links). The program seeks to reduce the amount of waste produced by our campus community and improve our sustainability. Pre-consumer fruit, vegetable, and bread, and post-napkin waste is collected from Dining Services and gathered in appropriate compost processing bins at the garden site. The program hopes to expand to include post-consumer waste in both the Dining Hall and the Bullet Hole as the garden project develops and the Grounds Department requests material.