Recycling at Penn State started as grassroots efforts in the early '70s, spearheaded by student groups and other concerned individuals.

Finally, the university began to recycle in the fall of 1989.

Since then, the program has grown dramatically -- increasing from just 20 tons recycled that first year to almost 6,000 tons. Last year alone Penn State recycled 5,751 tons, or 46 percent of its total waste. Today, recycling bins and the motto "Penn State Recycles" have become prevalent on campus.

But Al Matyasovsky, supervisor of central support services and head of the recycling program, said it isn't enough.

"Our potential at Penn State is 67 percent," he said.

Tomorrow, in honor of Earth Day, the Office of the Physical Plant (OPP) and Eco-Action will promote recycling from noon to 8 p.m. on the HUB Lawn. Eco-Action will be placing recycling and compost bins on the lawn to raise awareness, and OPP will have a table set up to promote recycling education.

The percentage of waste recycled has crept up 4 percent each of the past four years, he said, and though some areas of Penn State's recycling program shine, others are in need of improvement.

Matyasovsky said new equipment, employee training and widening the range of materials recycled would all help the program reach its goal. But, none of these things can substitute for education, he said, and that is what Matyasovsky hopes to achieve tomorrow.

The program

A crew of six men, working from 5 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. five days a week, take care of recycling. Bags of recyclables are picked up from the dorms and other buildings first thing in the morning by two men, who then take it to a sorting area in the fields near Beaver Stadium. They then go through each bag and sort it, a task that takes the entirety of their shift.

Materials collected at the university include plastics, glass, newspapers, computers, cardboard, scrap metal, office paper and some food scraps.

Currently, the average student creates 375 pounds of trash and 69 pounds of recyclables each year. Every piece of recycling that doesn't go in the trash saves the university money, Matyasovsky said.

Garbage costs $66 a ton to dispose of, while recycling costs $10 a ton, he said.

"It translates into thousands of dollars," he said.

In addition to the standard bins for plastics, glass and newspapers, Penn State is making some innovative efforts to combat waste on campus.

In 1997, the university began a pilot program to recycle pre-consumer food waste -- leftover and spoiled food -- and used napkins in Redifer dining commons.

The waste, about 3 to 4 tons each day, is taken from the dining commons on weekdays to a site near Beaver Stadium, where it is composted and eventually spread as mulch on flower beds all over campus. Last year, 822 tons were composted.

"Ten years ago, we did none of that," Matyasovsky said.

Penn State has received $142,000 in grants since 2003 from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for equipment for composting, said Michelle Ferguson, regional recycling coordinator for the DEP.

However, food that students throw away from their plates is currently not collected for compost -- which is one step toward reaching the goal of 67 percent, Matyasovsky said.

This is a future initiative, but current facilities at dining commons have to be changed, he said.

Technology on campus is also recycled.

Old computers are sent to the U.S. Penitentiary at Lewisburg, where they are refurbished by prisoners and sold at auction.

"That's a very lucrative operation for the prison system," he said.

Without this program, the university would have to find a private company to market the material, he said.

Matyasovsky said one recycling area that needs improvement is office paper.

Bins are placed where high volumes of paper are generated, such as near copy machines and printers in computer labs.

In 2006, the university recycled 771 tons of mixed office paper, but it could be twice as much, Matyasovsky said.

"I think mixed office paper is floundering at 50 percent potential," he said.

To handle the volume of recyclables, the university has worked cooperatively with the Centre County Solid Waste Authority for the past 18 years.

Most of the materials recycled from Penn State go to the authority.

Joanne Shaffer, recycling coordinator at the authority, said 15 percent of the total volume of recyclables the authority processes comes from the university.

The authority works with the university with some of its collection, facilitating cardboard recycling and educational services.

The authority and the university work together to improve recycling where they can, such as at Beaver Stadium during football games, she said.

The county gives annual grants for recycling to the university with money left over from its annual budget, Shaffer said.

The university has received $51,000 in grants from the waste authority since 1989, Matyasovsky said.

Other schools

In 2006, the National Recycling Coalition named Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore., as "Outstanding College or University Program" for its recycling efforts.

According to the coalition, the college recycles or reuses 61 percent of its waste.

Among the college's efforts is the construction of a bio-diesel processor that recycles using vegetable oil from the college's food service.

At California State University-Monterey Bay, plastic utensils in the dining halls have been replaced with Spudware -- forks, spoons and knives made out of biodegradable potato starch and soy oil.

But how does Penn State stack up?

Ric Laudenslager, who heads the College and University committee for Pennsylvania's State Recycling Program, said Penn State has "one of the best programs in the state."

However, he saw areas that could need improvement.

"From what I could see, some of the signage is a problem," he said "There's a lot of confusion -- a lot of bins, but they're not labeled very well."

Laudenslager, who is also Villanova University's recycling coordinator, said Penn State is at a disadvantage because of its size.

Villanova is a smaller school with a total enrollment of about 6,000 compared to 43,000 at Penn State.

"For our program [at Villanova], I have more control over it," he said. "You have a lot of buildings to deal with."

Located outside Philadelphia, Villanova also has more options on where to send their recycling, he said.

"I can make more money off of my recycling; I can easily recycle more types of things," he said.

Penn State doesn't make any money off of their recycling, Matya-sovsky said.

"We pay for the privilege for offloading our recyclable materials with the county," he said.

Barb Kviz, environmental coordinator at Carnegie Mellon University, agreed.

Kviz, who recently visited Penn State when her university began exploring the potential of food composting, said though the program is "excellent," the size of Penn State created a challenge.

"Every year, a quarter of [students] leave and a quarter of the population comes in new," she said.

Kviz said she faces similar problems with student participation.

The recycling rate at Carnegie Mellon has not gone up despite promotional efforts, Kviz said, adding that many students still don't understand the importance of recycling.

"Some of the students here are like 'so what?' " she said.

New efforts

Recycling at Penn State is a constant behind-the-scenes effort, Matyasovsky said.

Throughout the university, a total of 2,500 recycling bins are placed in high-traffic areas, and OPP constantly monitors them to maximize usage. Signs are strategically posted directing students to their nearest bins.

"You have to look for opportunities," Matyasovsky said.

However, the main way improvements can be made is by "educating our customers on what we're collecting, how we're collecting it and the purpose of collecting it," he said.

It is important to give students more reasons, such as charity and scholarships, to recycle, he said.

Through Trash to Treasure, students donate unneeded furniture and clothing when they move out of the dorms.

The items are then sold at the annual sale held each May in Beaver Stadium. The program earned $50,000 for the Centre County United Way last year through the sale of 66 tons of items.

"It's waste management at its greatest," Matyasovsky said.

The recycling of newspapers on campus has generated about $60,000 for the Penn State general scholarship fund.

When the newspapers are collected, a waste services company markets them and a portion of the profits are donated to the university. This amount is also matched by the Centre Daily Times, The New York Times and USA Today.

Brittany Harris, president of student group Eco-Action, said recycling in the dorms could be improved.

She added that Eco-Action is currently working with OPP to improve student participation.

The group is trying to make feasible a plan to have small boxes installed in every dorm room alongside trashcans.

Currently, recycling bins are located on each floor, but not in rooms, and students tend to throw recyclables in the trashcans in their rooms, she said.

In addition, the group wants to make signs to alert students to the location of nearby recycling bins.

"We're trying to make it mindless to recycle," she said.

The effectiveness of recycling initiatives must be balanced against cost, Matyasovsky said.

"You have to balance your pro-
cesses with smart money," he said. "Every [aluminum] can represents a task."

In the end, he said, the effort to recycle comes down to putting each recyclable into a bin.

"Know what recycling is? It's this paper and the noble intent," he said, picking up a newspaper. "It's a piece at a time."