Comparing recycling programs at Big Ten universities is a daunting task. No two programs are identical, they are developing at different speeds, and they are complicated by geography, finances and delicate arrangements between the universities and outside facilities that reach far into the past.

But what is certain is that recycling programs require specific elements to make them a success.

“A fire requires a spark, fuel and oxygen to become a raging bonfire. In the same way, a successful recycling program demands a source, a market and an unwillingness to landfill,” said Rob Gogan of the College and University Recycling Council.

Gogan, who is also the recycling and waste manager for Harvard University, said that many of the nationally known programs — such as those at University of Illinois, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Ohio State University — are leaders in recycling because they have these three elements:

• Enough staff and students consuming products they’ll later want to discard.
  
• A market: Universities require markets to take the materials they collect for recycling so they can be processed for re-use. Markets for paper, plastic, glass and metals have traditionally been easy for many universities to access — “But not everywhere,” Gogan said.
  
• Finally, a successful program requires an “unwillingness to dispose” on the part of the university, either for financial or environmental reasons. Gogan said landfill fees are high in densely populated areas and can catalyze the push for recycling. “In sparsely populated states like Iowa, Kansas and Wyoming, it’s cheaper to landfill, and the desire to recycle isn’t always there,” he said. Many universities also recycle to be good stewards.

So, how well are the Big Ten universities recycling? Are they doing it for the money or for the desire to be “green”? Let’s take a look and see.

Piling Up the Paper

Paper is everywhere. It piles on your desk. The postman delivers it in droves. It transports your purchases from the store. Whether it comes in the form of a newspaper, junk mail or a grocery bag, paper is the primary source of trash in American landfills, taking up nearly a third of the available space.

At Big Ten schools, deciding whether to focus on recycling has political and economic implications.

Schools without a community recycling program or internalized recycling are forced to contract with private companies, and as Ed Newman, co-vice chair of the College and University Recycling Council and Ohio State University recycling and refuse manager, said: it all boils down to “a lot of politics.”

But regardless of the way a university’s recycling is done, it’s always worth the effort to recycle, he said: “It’s just a matter of working out a contract that works.”

Among Big Ten schools, University of Illinois’ recycling program leads the conference in total weight recycled (4,885 tons) and amount recycled per student (233 pounds).
Tracey Artley, the school’s recycling coordinator, said the school’s success is because it is essentially free to the university.

Trash services and recycling are grouped as one expense under the school’s general fund, according to Diane Brown, senior information officer for the university’s facilities and operations. Recycling is cheaper for the university than trash service, so when the budget for waste management is made, whatever is recycled cuts costs in the university’s waste management bill.

“The costs are covered by what we charge for trash services,” Artley said. “So, theoretically, if a building recycled 100 percent of its waste, it would have no trash bill.”

In addition to their cost effective recycling program, University of Michigan is one of the few Big Ten schools to provide in-stadium recycling at football games. This program alone accounted for 10.98 tons of paper recycling last year, according to university data.

Michigan State University also provides recycling at its home football games, an initiative that began just two years ago.

Ohio State has the worst record of paper recycling among Big Ten schools, salvaging just 30.52 pounds of paper per student. According to Newman, this is part of a long history of poor recycling at OSU.

But Ohio State hopes a new program, which stresses easier access to receptacles, will create a large-scale improvement. The program was implemented in nine pilot buildings last November.

“The old system was very cumbersome — Only a few people [putting paper into] cardboard boxes, and it was up to them to find a container to dump it into,” said Tina Redman, Ohio State’s recycling coordinator. “We’re trying to make things easier so hopefully we’ll get the paper rate up for the future.”

Material Mania

Recycling mixed materials — metals, plastics, tires, batteries, animal bedding, hazardous wastes — created a challenge for University of Iowa, which recycled only a little more than one ton of plastic in 2006. Meanwhile, Ohio State led the pack with 880 tons recycled last year.

Why the big difference?

A compilation of many positive factors, Gogan said.

Schools at the top, like Ohio State, Minnesota and Illinois, have an on-campus material recovery facility where recyclables are sorted from trash with the use of front-end loaders, bailers and a fleet of trucks.

Illinois collects and recycles cans (aluminum, bimetal and tin), plastics (PET and HDPE), pallets, scrap metals, tires, motor oil, lead acid batteries, landscape waste, animal bedding, Freon, hazardous wastes and construction and demolition waste from campus building projects.

Gogan said it’s cost-effective for the schools to take the bailed recyclables and trash to the same place because they receive money for both.

“Instead of paying the high disposal costs in the Great Lakes region, they bring bails in and get money for them,” he said.

But Gogan said low landfill costs in other regions and the threat of liability prevent some universities from constructing on-site recycling facilities.

This is the case at the University of Iowa, where a very different story emerges. There, students took over where the administration left off.

A group of about 10 volunteers collect mainly plastic recyclables around campus over the past decade. They call themselves the University of Iowa Environmental Coalition.
The group’s president, Kyle Sieck, said the administration supports the group’s efforts by supplying resources, such as office space, but that recycling isn’t a priority at the school.

“We’ve tried numerous times to get things done, but it’s not a high priority for the administration, and that’s pathetic,” Sieck said. “But I sense things are changing and people are finally becoming environmentally aware.”

Dave Jackson, assistant to the associate vice president of facilities management, said the university recycled 2,103 pounds of plastic last year.

“There are people who care here,” Sieck said. “We’re working on changing things.”

Trash Talk

Among Big Ten universities, Penn State and Illinois led in waste disposal in 2004-05. For every ton of waste recycled at both Penn State and Illinois, less than 1.5 tons went to the landfill. Ohio State has the worst ratio in the Big Ten. It sent more than 4.5 tons of waste to the landfill for every ton that was recycled in 2006.

Environmental stewardship aside, one reason Penn State is motivated to landfill less waste might be the high tipping fees in its region — Penn State paid about $66 per ton to tip its trash into a landfill, while Purdue and Indiana paid about half that.

As an alternative to landfills, some universities burn trash. Minnesota sends its non-recyclable waste to the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center in downtown Minneapolis. That has an environmental benefit because the incinerater uses the heat from combustion to generate electricity.

Unfortunately, incineration emits large quantities of gases into the air. The EPA says “burning Municipal Solid Waste can generate energy while reducing the amount of waste by up to 90 percent in volume and 75 percent in weight.”

Another way universities reduce waste sent to landfills is by recycling construction debris, including wood, screws and cardboard.

“On the horizon, I see the amount [of construction and demolition waste taken out of landfills] going up because schools will want to take credit for it,” said Roger Cargill, the operations supervisor at Michigan State University’s recycling office. “If you take out the concrete, the two-by-four or the cardboard, you can really reduce the construction site waste — and cost.”

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Kelly House is a freshman studying journalism at MSU. This is her first appearance in EJ. Contact Kelly at houseke1@msu.edu.

Hannah Northey is the coordinator of the Big Ten Environmentalism project and a second-year master’s student in the environmental journalism program at MSU. This is her third appearance as a writer and her first issue as special project coordinator. Contact Hannah at hnorthey@gmail.com.

Aimee M. Wilson is a junior double-majoring in international relations and science and technology studies at MSU. This is her first appearance in EJ. Contact Aimee at wilsonai@msu.edu.