By the Numbers: Recycling at IWU

This is posted with permission from Adam Binkerd, Grounds Manager at IWU's Facilities Services.

Indiana Wesleyan University Recycling Center

The Indiana Wesleyan University Recycling Center has been growing consistently for the last three years.  Each year the recycling center looks for new ways to benefit the campus as well as the environment by offsetting waste removal cost, and also keeping recyclable products out of Indiana landfills.

The current fiscal year has been a great testament to the impact that the Marion campus can have in the environment when we set our minds to it.  Although there are many areas in which we can improve, the numbers below will assure anyone that we are giving it everything we have and looking to get better.

IWU Campus, Fall 2009

2010 Fiscal Year – [July 2009 to date of document preparation, January 2010]

To date in this current fiscal year, the IWU community has produced a staggering 400.77 tons of waste.  The IWU recycling center is proud to say that 31% of that total was kept out of the landfill.  IWU Recycling Center has recycled 124.37 tons of cardboard, paper, plastics, glass, aluminum and steel. 

Approximately:

·         165 bales, 99 tons or 198,000lbs of Cardboard

·         3.326 tons or 64,200 plastic bottles

·         .82 tons or 3,280 glass bottles

·         18,520 lbs of scrap steel

·         .38 tons or 26,600 aluminum cans

·         12.1 tons of loose paper

·         32lbs or 3,296 Plastic Grocery bags

·         IWU recycling center has also collected 71 pairs of jeans, 93 shirts and 20 pairs of shoes that were given to the local mission to be reused by those less fortunate.

One of the things that is not reflected in the percentage above is the amount of food pulp that IWU food center (Baldwin) has been putting in our dumpsters.  Although food pulp is biodegradable and by far the best thing that could be put into a landfill it was adding weight to our removal cost, causing Indiana Wesleyan University to pay more to remove the waste from campus.  On average the Recycling Center removes 4 cans of food pulp from the Baldwin Food Center every week and turns it into compost that is distributed to a local farm; totaling 748lbs/week.  In an average school year this totals a whopping 23,936 lbs or 11.97 tons; which equates to $572 or two open top dumpsters that the University is not paying for.

I hope that as we continue to track our weights and volume that we can watch these numbers increase in the years to come.