OPP tidies campus with trash removal

What happens to the half-filled glass jar of cranberry juice that was tossed into the recycling bin yesterday? Where do the contents of garbage cans go? Who handles the trash the University produces?

The Office of Physical Plant is responsible for removing refuse from classroom buildings on campus, said A.E. Matyasovsky, foreman for preventative maintenance and solid waste management for OPP.

The size of the campus is apparent in the amount of trash that leaves the University.

"With all of the activity, we of course, have a large trash stream exiting the University," Ruskin said.

On campus there are more than 270 refuse dumpsters. During Fall and Spring Semesters, two primary routes are run four days each week. These routes, Ruskin said, pick up between 75 and 80 dumpsters of trash per day. Secondary routes, which run twice a week, pick up another 50 cans per day.

The solid waste garbage and the recyclable items are then taken to the Centre County Solid Waste Authority, 253 Transfer Rd., Bellefonte, and the garbage is sent to a landfill, he said.

There are two critical factors involved in running a successful waste management program -- lowering the amount of refuse generated and increasing the amount of material recycled, Matyasovsky said.

The cost of recycling is far cheaper than that of refuse disposal. It costs $72 per ton for refuse disposal, Matyasovsky said, and $5 per ton for recyclable material.

"The avoided cost is why we are so intent . . . with doing a good job with our recycling program," Matyasovsky said.

Recycling at the University began in 1989, Matyasovsky said, and the effort at the University has increased since then because students have contributed to it.

The students who care to become involved have to make the effort to recycle in their dorms. Although OPP takes care of the academic buildings on campus, each dormitory is responsible for their own recycling effort, Matyasovsky said.

The recycling effort in the dorms is difficult to manage, said Allen Chouinard, manager for the East Halls Housing Service. Yet residents of some floors and houses have chosen to make the effort to recycle.

If residents of an East Halls dorm floor want to recycle mixed office paper and aluminum cans, the housekeeping services will take care of it. But if someone wanted to recycle newspaper, glass or plastic they would have to set up their own system, Chouinard said.

Currently, he said, there are eight groups in East Halls recycling items not handled by the housekeeping service.

"We only have maybe one-third of the students participating on the floors," Chouinard said. "It's feasible to have bins on every floor. What needs to happen is assistance with all those bins."

About 75 percent of the amount of aluminum tossed out is recycled, compared to only 25 percent of the glass, Chouinard said.

But the recycling effort in the dormitories is not enough, said Autumn Hanna, co-director of Eco-Action.

"Everybody knows they should recycle. Everybody knows what they can recycle," Hanna said. "I would say that it's the fact that they don't think about it."

Most people will recycle if it is convenient, she said, but people should make the effort to go out of their way to recycle.

"I don't think we should have to have everything so easy," Hanna said.

Placing glass recycling bins in the HUB and involving resident assistants to recruit and organize recycling programs are two ways Hanna said the University could improve the recycling program.

Another way to improve recycling is to make it natural.

"Part of it is it becomes a way of life," Chouinard said.