by Connor Parks
Recycling may have its positives and negatives, but I tend to be a pretty strong proponent of it. I’m only a casual recycler and know nothing about the field on a regional or global scale. Taking my binful of calendar pages, grocery bags, and sparkling water cans to my hall’s disposal bins, however, has become something of a weekly tradition, and I’m grateful I have the option to do so instead of having to dispose of it off-campus. During my time at Centre, I haven’t heard much controversy or discussion around the general presence of recycling services. Gradually, though, I began to notice some inconsistencies: why did some buildings, such as Young, offer glass disposal services when Boyle County no longer recycles glass? Why was recycling engagement only sparsely promoted and (in my experience) infrequently used by the student body? With questions like these, I was curious what the general state of recycling services and possibilities for the future looked like across campus.
To get a general overview of how recycling works at Centre and a look at recent statistics on our collection, I reached out to Dr. Werner in Environmental Studies and Campus Recycling Coordinator James Bolen. While what they provided me with was extensive, I know it only touched a little bit on the extent of this complicated, international process of contracts, collection, and the end result of sustainable products. Despite being an imperfect process like any other in waste management, Centre seems to be involved in recycling at a fairly consistent level for a small institution. I’ve compiled a general set of information below, starting with some basic facts about how Centre handles recycling, and some recent statistics on our collection and recycling charity practices.
General Facts (credit: James Bolen and Dr. Brett Werner)
- All recycling collected across campus is donated to the Boyle County Recycling Center, which sorts and deals with it independently. Centre isn’t affiliated with Danville’s municipal waste/recycling contract, which means we collect our own recycling and contract facilities to sort it and ship it out. Danville, meanwhile, uses a single-stream (co-mingled) recycling system, sorting it in separate facilities afterwards.
- Centre used to send lots of recycling to China to have it sorted, but China banned the import of 32 different kinds of recycling from producer nations in 2019, completely disrupting the recycling market. According to Dr. Werner, other countries in Southeast Asia have started accepting some of these recycling waste streams with the hope that it will all be recycled, yet he’s heard that much of it gets landfilled.
- The City of Danville recently changed its recycling policy to remove glass from its single stream. This is mostly due to the combination of the health and safety issues with glass, combined with the general lack of a recycling market for glass (most glass bottles are made from first use glass).
- Some campus buildings are obligated to recycle glass as a stipulation to uphold their LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which rates and rewards buildings based on environmental impact) certifications, such as Young Hall. For other buildings which may not, LEED policies either changed, or Centre opted out of the requirement for another environmentally friendly stipulation.
- Many products (at Centre and elsewhere) intended for recycling may or may not get recycled– not due to Centre policy, but due to the route taken on the way to the end market. Recycled plastic products in particular are usually recycled at a lower grade: plastic bottles can be recycled into lawn furniture, but are rarely recycled back into another plastic bottle.
- According to Dr. Werner, a common trend over the last 10-15 years is that the largest market for recycled material is cardboard and aluminum. This allows entities such as Centre to contract with recycling companies to take and recycle plastic by including it as part of the contract for the cardboard and aluminum, making recyclers take the materials they don’t want by letting them have what they do want. Often, recycling centers arrange things this way, which explains why Centre recycling is organised as it is.
Statistics and Programs (credit: James Bolen)
Some existing recycling initiatives that we have in play here on campus:
- Maintaining recycling bins across campus, moving location based on use and need. Daily pickup route of locations across campus for cardboard and aluminum.
- Donating tennis balls periodically to some of the local rehabilitation and nursing centers, Toliver Elementary School, and the Danville Boyle County Humane Society, as well as baseballs periodically to Bates Middle and Toliver Elementary School.
- Linens were donated to the United Way for the local battered women’s shelter
- Recycling batteries. (25 lbs. July 2024-present)
- Recycling aluminum/ steel cans. (650 lbs July 2024-present)
- Recycling plastic bottles. (525 lbs. July 2024-present)
- Recycling paper/magazines. (33,250 lbs July 2024-present)
- Recycling cardboard. (64,800 lbs July 2024-present)
- Total weight of recycling = (49.5005 tons July 2024-present)
- Participating in the annual Hazardous Waste Event. The past 2 years, Centre had a large trailer load, including old chemicals, helium tanks, oil, etc.
- Participating in the bi-annual tire pickup event.
- Coordinating with offices across the campus for book and paper recycling.
- Working with professors and students on recycling as statistics are requested.
Additionally, Centre has historically participated in the annual Hope Springs Yard Sale, last held in 2023, which consists of items donated from Centre students at move-out. This year, Centre will once again participate by staging a donation drive on May 8th and 9th, in which students can donate unwanted dorm items to boxes placed in dorms for collection. In 2023, campus efforts helped raise $4,818.25 that went to fund grants for persons in need in a five-county area, building wheelchair ramps, repairing handicapped-accessible vans, etc. Statistics from this sale included the following:
• 73 persons provided more than 752 hours of volunteer work.
• More than 7,500 items were offered for sale, and around 22,000 pounds of material were diverted from the local landfill.
• The sale gathered and donated a record 422 pounds of food to two local food pantries.
• Expert book volunteers ironed out details to hand-select 382 pounds of high-value science
books for delivery to the International Book Project to use in classrooms worldwide.
Obviously, this is only a small glance at a process which connects empty soda cans in our little slice of Boyle County to the broader world of reusable materials, bridging politics, environmental studies, and economics. Regardless, Centre’s participation in recycling services is an interesting glance into how these processes play out in the world around us, and how beneficial small-scale recycling can be for a number of reasons. If this is something you find yourself interested in, or if there’s any way you believe you could expand Centre’s recycling possibilities, I’d encourage reaching out to James Bolen or Boyle County Solid Waste & Recycling Director Angela Muncy to see how you could help. In the meantime, don’t forget about the green bins in your housing common area: they’re there for a reason!