Sustainability@UIC

Taking the Initiative at the UIC School of Architecture

2013-10-27T10:17:00.000-05:00

At the end of Spring 2013 Semester, the UIC School of Architecture studios were battle scenes of art supplies and takeout containers. With only a few bins for trash and recycling, the recycling bins were being ignored and used for anything and everything. Trash was piled high, and unused, while destroyed materials covered the floor. Cardboard models were left to fall apart, and bottles or cans were left empty on tables. Almost everything had to be tossed.

Considering the amount of specific material needed within the Architecture studios, it was no surprise that the standard bins and guidelines were no match for the chaos of finals week.

Seeing the issue at hand, the UIC Office of Sustainability and the UIC School of Architecture decided to take the initiative towards recycling and preserving materials used within the Architecture studios. This happened through a series of minor, easily-executed actions.

Organization of Work Space and Storage Space
Additional Larger Recycling Bins and Separate Trash Bins
Detailed Recycling Guidelines and Posters

This is the first semester with these recycling changes and additions, and it is great to see the students beginning to make the effort. Considering midterms just finished, the studios are still in good condition! The bins are being used properly, the studio environment is cleaner and more organized, and the informative posters remain in securely in place. Now you actually see students referring to the poster before disposing of an item, and talking to each other about what to throw away and what to recycle. Staff encourage students to recycle, and students also encourage one another.

There is a lot of progress that still needs to be made, but we are off to a good start with UIC School of Architecture! This is a proven example that if behavior is questionable, change can stem from even the smallest actions or a comment from a peer.

Are you involved in a college or department that is burdened by specific recycling needs or requirements? If so, contact Joe Iosbaker, Recycling Coordinator with the UIC Office of Sustainability, to start taking action!

Honors College Waste Audit

2013-03-11T09:06:00.000-05:00

On Jan 29th, 5 dedicated EcoCampus members, assisted by Office of Sustainability recycling staff, did an audit of the UIC Honors College's recycling and waste habits. EcoCampus decided to do this because the the Honors College has made a public commitment to the recycling program, and they wanted to see if the institutional commitment made a difference in behavior.

Their report shows that there have been good results, especially with the paper recycling rate. Of the total paper produced in the UIC Honors College, 77% was recycled. This is a little better rate than other office buildings on campus.

The recycling rate overall in the Honors College was about 45% - in line with the recycling rate for the campus as a whole. Just like the rest of the campus, there is more work to be done.

Observations about what was in the non-recycling waste (trash): 43% of the trash was actually
recyclable. Most of that was paper. Another 28% of it was identified as compostable.

Conclusions: there are significant amounts of paper and glass, metal and plastic in the trash to be captured. Paper is the larger of the two streams, and the students recommend concentrating on capturing that as the next step to increase the recycling rate overall. They want to initiate a paper coffee cup recycling collection, as UIC’s new recycling vendor reports that the cups can go into the cardboard stream. In addition, they are interested in a composting effort within the College.

Read all the details in the EcoCampus report here and find more photos here.

"Caught in the Act?"

2013-03-07T13:34:00.000-06:00

Do you know a UIC student who goes above and beyond when it comes to recycling? If so, then here's your chance to give them a little recognition!

The Office of Sustainability is taking nominations for those with exceptional recycling habits within the UIC campus (self nominations accepted). Candidates who are chosen will receive an American Express Gift Card, and will be profiled for the UIC Sustainability blog.

Send the following information to recycling@uic.edu: your name, nominee's name, reason(s) for nomination (no more than 100 words) OR a photo of the nominee caught in the act of recycling.

RecycleMania is back for 2013!

2013-02-04T10:41:00.001-06:00

RecycleMania is the competition that pits hundreds of colleges and universities against each other in a challenge to increase recycling on campus. Tracking material for the official competition begins Sunday, February 3 and lasts through Friday, April 5^th.

In the past two years, UIC has established itself as a serious contender! In 2011, we placed ninth Joe Fabrizio, the driver on the UIC paper recycling truck, said, “Personally I won’t be satisfied until we break the top five!”

It won’t be easy. We’re up against elite state schools like Rutgers University, University of California-Irvine, Michigan State University and University of California-Los Angeles, as well as private schools like Boston College, Duke and Harvard.

However, what UIC lacks in endowments, we make up for in hard work.

Counting on Students

It’s up to the student body (with the help of faculty and staff on campus) to meet this challenge. Not only can we move up the ranks in weight rank, we can also improve our national standing in per capita competitions. To this end, we’re calling for a duel between the different residence halls – East Campus, West Campus and South Campus. Together with Campus Housing, a competition will be held to honor the hall that has the greatest improvement in per capita recycling.

We’ll post the scores weekly on the Office of Sustainability website. Stay tuned!

How are you going to help UIC win Recycemania? Let us know in the comments!

UIC Recycling Program Improvements

2012-09-24T16:48:00.000-05:00

In an effort to further improve the UIC Recycling Program, the Office of Sustainability has installed new recycling bins throughout the Residence Halls and five buildings in the College of Medicine, bringing all state-run UIC buildings into the modern campus recycling program! These bins are flashier and are also better suited for recycling. With lids that correspond to the bin’s purpose (e.g. the paper bin has a lid with a slot, instead of a wide opening), even the design of the bins has the potential to help increase recycling rates. These bins are also brighter, which makes them easier to locate throughout buildings. In addition, the number of trash bins throughout College of Medicine buildings has been decreased in order to promote more recycling.

The Office of Sustainability, in coordination with the installment of new equipment, is also trying to develop better ways of labeling bins. We have created new posters and stickers, which will be placed on and around all the new recycling bins. These new labeling materials will make recycling stations more apparent; they will also attempt to educate members of the UIC community. The posters provide detailed descriptions of what types of materials belong in each bin so that people recycle correctly, and are also better educated in the future. You can see the new posters in the photo below:

Currently, the installation is still being completed. The last steps of the installation will be placing label stickers on the new equipment that has already been installed and delivering side saddles, which are small bins that hang off regular desk-side recycling bins and are used for trash. Once this has been completed, the new equipment and labeling materials will be completely integrated.

This project was funded entirely by grants received from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). DCEO is an organization that works to raise Illinois’ profile as a business destination, and to provide a foundation for prosperity for Illinois. They provide infrastructure building and job training efforts, and (to our benefit) administer federal grants. With the help of DCEO, we have been able to take another step in making recycling an integral part of the UIC community.

The installation has gone well so far despite some of the challenges that were encountered. We have already received positive feedback on the new posters, and we look forward to completing the rest of the installation.

As always, we welcome feedback, questions, and concerns; if you have any, contact recycling@uic.edu. Thanks for recycling!

Hiring: 2012 Undergraduate Recycling Assistant

2012-05-02T16:07:00.000-05:00

The Office of Sustainability is seeking student support for UIC’s Recycling Program. We are hiring current undergraduate students for the position of Recycling Assistant for 10-15 hr/week during the semester and 35-40 hr/week during the summer. Work hours will be scheduled between 8 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday. Responsibilities include:

Generating awareness of and promoting both recycling and conservation programs on campus
Monitoring of recycling bins’ location, condition and signage
Installation and placement of bins in existing and new locations
Maintenance of records on recycled materials
Performing other duties as assigned.

Hourly rate: $8.68

Qualifications:

Strong interest in learning about and promoting recycling.
Ability to manage data in Microsoft Excel.
Physical ability to lift 75 pounds. Need a valid Illinois Driver's license.

Interested applicants, please submit resume and COVER LETTER to Cindy Klein-Banai, Associate Chancellor for Sustainability at cindy@uic.edu.

The (Art Competition) Winner Is...

2012-04-09T15:02:00.000-05:00

We are proud to announce that all of the teams participating in the RecycleMania Art Competition on March 30 did an outstanding job. However, there could only be one winner. The winning team included members Erin Curl, Ijeoma-Jessie Nwosu, and Holly Brenza (pictured on the left with their winning tote).

The teams had a total of 2 hours to decorate their totes before judging commenced. The presiding judges were recruited from housing staff, and they declared the winning team.

The Office of Sustainability provided spray paint and found-item materials (including used cd’s, stickers, broken keyboards and more) to be used by competitors to decorate their 90 gallon totes. The competing teams used a variety of materials. Everything from old discarded computer cords to candy wrappers can be seen on the decorated totes (pictured below). Each team showed discernible creativity and original design. The totes they have decorated will not only beautify the UIC campus, they will also provide even more recycling areas, as the totes will be used both decoratively and practically.

The Office of Sustainability would like to thank everyone who competed in the event, as well as everyone who made it possible.

RecycleMania has now come to an end, but we appreciate all the students and staff who made it possible and will post the results in the next two weeks when weigh-ins are complete. Stay tuned for more details on the final results of the national competition.

RecycleMania sprouts in residence halls

2012-02-24T15:26:00.000-06:00

The Office of Sustainability gave a presentation in January to the East Campus Residence Hall staff to inform them about the RecycleMania tournament. After witnessing the presentation, Altaf Khan, a peer mentor in Courtyard, organized his own event to accompany the RecycleMania tournament. His idea was to have his floor in Courtyard decorate cardboard boxes to collect their recycling in. These boxes would be placed in their clusters to create easy access and help encourage people to recycle.

The event took place on February 21^st on the first floor of Courtyard. People who attended decorated their boxes, and were able to watch the presentation that inspired Altaf as it played at the event.

The students seemed to enjoy the event and they are, as of now, looking for a way to weigh the recycling they collect in order to assess their personal contribution. This event was truly inspiring and demonstrates the social awareness and genuine concern that UIC students possess. The Office of Sustainability would like to thank everyone who attended the event, and give a special thanks to Altaf for making it happen.

RecycleMania is still on and we encourage everyone to get involved.

What should I do with my old electronics?

2012-02-04T15:11:00.000-06:00

Students these days go through electronics like packages of Ramen noodle. One year our iPod is the hottest thing, next year it seems to be visually outdated by a decade. But what exactly do we do with these old electronic devices?

Since January 1, Illinois has enacted a law that could make it illegal to throw our old computers or iPods in the garbage can. The law also requires companies, like Apple or HP, to provide a way for proper disposal of the devices they sell. To make this law a little more real, if caught improperly disposing an electronic device, you can be fined up to $10,000. That means goodbye junior year of college!

Sending a device back to a company is a hassle - sometimes we don't have time or patience to send packages. What do we do with our old computer monitors or mice? One way is to make some dough (my favorite option)! Some stores or websites, like Best Buy or Target, will pay you in gift cards or cash for your used device. The only down side is if your device is seriously messed up by you dropping it or some other factor, your gift card value will decrease more and more. These companies then sell the used device again or properly recycle it.

Currently, there is no way to properly dispose of personal electronics on campus. Although the university population is predominantly made of commuters, this poses a problem for on-campus students. Perhaps UIC should implement a service that lets you recycle your old electronics? Is recycling electronics a big deal on campus for students?

Do you have any ideas on how the school could do this? Share them in the comments section!

Here's a detailed list of what you cannot throw in the garbage:

Televisions
Monitors
Printers
Computers ( laptop, notebook, netbook, tablet, desktop )
Electronic Keyboards
Facsimile Machines
Videocassette Recorders
Portable Digital Music Players
Digital Video Disc Players
Video Game Consoles
Small Scale Servers
Scanners
Electronic Mice
Digital Converter Boxes
Cable Receivers
Satellite Receivers
Digital Video Disc Recorders

Recognizing Outstanding Recyclers on Campus

2012-01-18T17:03:00.000-06:00

While most employees at UIC are participating in the recycling program, there are still people out there who don’t want to or don’t know why it’s important to recycle. We can all choose to see recycling as an inconvenience, or it can be viewed as a vital part of our efforts to repair the world - before it’s too late.

There are many different approaches, but UIC is making commitments to increase the amount we recycle. For example, we have decided to take the RePaper Challenge and recycle 75% of all paper.

During the waste audits to prepare for the RePaper Challenge, we discovered one building was head-and-shoulders above the others we sampled: University Hall. We realized that University Hall is a shining example of how the faculty, students and staff, including building service workers (BSWs), can come together to greatly improve a building’s recycling performance, and decided it was important to highlight this building’s successes.

University Hall is typical of the office buildings on campus in that it has the full recycling program in place. “Full” means office occupants get desk side recycling bins and then separate their own recyclables and trash in hallway recycling stations. BSWs take over from there, moving as much as five tons a month of paper and cardboard to larger centrally-located storage areas, and making sure the material is sorted and ready for recycling truck drivers to carry to off-campus recycling facilities. Although about 6 out of 10 buildings on campus have this system in place, we’re recognizing UH because we tested them and they passed with flying colors, scoring a paper recovery rate of over 70%!

Keep an eye out for this certificate of appreciation:

We’ll post copies in the offices of the English Department, the School of Literatures, Cultural Studies and Linguistics, and in the College of Business. We’ll also provide individual certificates to group of employees who had the biggest part to play, the Building Operations staff.

A big thank you goes out to UH supervisors Melva Malone & Gail Hampton-Mosley, and Building Service Workers (BSWs) Jesus Ayala, Rita Corona, Susie Edwards, Wilhelmina Franklin, John Gregory, Tony Rhodes, James Taylor, and Theresa Zamora for all the work they do to keep the building in order.

Along with the certificates of appreciation, we have candy. Jars of candy will be given to the BSWs and a big bag will be available for office staff in the three offices listed. We tried to use candy made locally, such as Tootsie Rolls, since locally produced items have less distance to travel to get to campus (therefore reducing associated carbon emissions) and supports our local economy. Also, the jars holding the candy were re-used!

As we continue to monitor recycling progress in buildings on campus, we hope to be able to recognize more students, faculty and staff in many of the other buildings on campus in the next year. If you know of someone that does an outstanding job of recycling on campus, let us know by sending a message to sustainability@uic.edu.

Meeting the RePaper Challenge

2012-01-18T17:00:00.004-06:00

UIC is taking part in a national effort by higher education institutions to raise campus paper recycling rates to 75% by the year 2015.

On Earth Day 2011, campuses across North America were called to participate in the RePaperCampus Challenge. This program is intended to increase sustainability on college campuses.

At UIC, we are making strides to reduce our carbon footprint, and we’ve received growing recognition for our recycling efforts:

- We placed 9th nationally in the Gorilla Prize Division (total weight of recycling) in RecycleMania, a friendly competition between 600 colleges and universities;

- The Illinois RecyclingAssociation awarded UIC as the 2010-2011 Grand Champion for Outstanding College and University Recycling Program. UIC was acknowledged for demonstrating the greatest achievement in both source reduction and recycling among Illinois colleges and universities competing in RecycleMania.

Despite these accolades, there’s always room to improve. We continue to learn about the environmental turmoil our planet is facing; this means we can’t be satisfied by simply improving, but must set higher goals and achieve them. That’s why we’re participating in the RePaper Challenge.

Auditing our Trash

In October, staff from the Office of Sustainability, with help from the departments of Transportation and Building Services, along with student volunteers from the student groups EcoCampus and Roots of Justice, carried out waste audits of four buildings: University Hall, Student Center East, Stukel Towers, and the College of Medicine. The audit was a first step in establishing a baseline to figure out our current paper recycling rate (and it also helps us get a sense of how recycling is working).

Why these buildings? Well, broadly, we chose buildings with different functions to get a sense of how things are working in the different building types, but more specifically…

University Hall because it’s typical of our existing recycling program: an office building in which the occupants are supplied with deskside recycling bins and are expected to regularly walk to recycling stations in the hallways and separate their paper, bottles and cans, and trash; building service workers then collect from those hallway bins, and place paper and bottles and cans in larger toters in the building; then the recycling drivers come for weekly pickups. We expected that UH would have the highest recovery rate of the four buildings.

The College of Medicine includes the last few state-run (more on that later) buildings on campus that don’t have the full recycling program. We are applying for a state funded grant to purchase additional equipment to bring the five buildings there up to the level that UH has achieved. The College of Medicine also has labs and classroom space.

Stukel Towers, a residence hall example, was chosen because developing a full recycling program in the residence halls is another goal of ours this year. The state-funded grant would provide residents with recycling equipment as well.

Finally, Student Center East was chosen as an example of a student center on campus.

Along with residence halls, athletic facilities, and other revenue-generating facilities on campus (like the UIC Forum and the Pavilion), Student Center East (and West) is part of a slightly different management system at UIC called Auxiliary Services. The final major goal this year is to bring the recycling programs in Auxiliary Services buildings to a similar level with the other non-Auxiliary buildings on campus. Auxiliary administration is purchasing new recycling equipment to capture the streams of paper, glass bottles, metal cans and plastic that are generated by the students, staff and visitors that traffic those buildings. Recently, the Office of Sustainability gave a “train-the-trainer” program for supervisors to bring their staff up to speed on recycling.

For the audit, we pulled 5 bags of trash from each of 4 buildings, and then we sorted it one building at a time. We found percentage by weight of each type of paper, plastic, metal, aluminum, glass, and waste materials. In the graph below, “Paper Fiber” refers to all types of recyclable paper on campus – basically office paper and cardboard.

We then compared the findings of the audit against the monthly recycling numbers. It starts to paint an interesting picture about recycling in our various facilities on campus.

Results: Where we are at now, and reaching our goal

When we totaled the four buildings, 27% of the trash was paper that we should have captured.

When we extrapolated the data from the waste audit to the overall campus waste stream, we found we have a recovery rate of 45%.

This means we have a good way to go to reach the RePaper Challenge goal of 75% recovery rate, but we are making that commitment, so we need everyone on campus – students, staff, faculty, and the administration – to join with us in order to reach it.

So, what do you think – can we meet the RePaper Challenge?

To find out more about the Recycling Program at UIC, visit the Office of Sustainability website.

Composting Audits at UIC

2011-11-29T10:40:00.000-06:00

Good news, everyone! UIC is moving one step closer to a food scrap composting program.

This week Sodexo, the organization responsible for serving food in the dining facilities on campus, will help UIC and the Office of Sustainability conduct a sample audit of the food waste in our dining halls.

This is pretty awesome for sustainability geeks like us, but I know some people have no idea what the big deal about compost is, or that it's so great UIC is going to be doing an audit. I'll try to explain some of that here.

Think about the natural cycle of things, like in a forest. There are animals and plants, including things that produce what we consider "food scraps," like an apple growing on a tree. Those food scraps, along with fallen leaves, dead plants and animals, and other organic material, decompose naturally. As food scraps and all this organic material decompose they produce methane, a very potent greenhouse gas - it's over 20 times better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. The presence of methane is a natural thing, and is usually absorbed by other organisms - like bacteria, or fungi, or scavengers - which come along and consume the decomposing material. It's a beautiful cycle that has evolved over time to create a fairly "closed loop" of material; "waste" doesn't exist in nature... a "waste product" is just another name for a resource that hasn't properly been matched to its consumer.

Now, think about a landfill. All this stuff, including food scraps, just sit there for years - although, there are certainly scavengers (think seagulls, rats) that come by and pick up some food, maybe. The methane that got absorbed by natural processes just leaks out, and up, into the atmosphere, and is a contributor to climate change. In 2009, methane emissions from landfills made up 17% of total methane emissions in the US, the 3rd highest behind Natural Gas Systems (like powerplants, home heating units, etc.) and something called Enteric Fermentation (I think that's a technical way of saying cow burps and farts). Yes, farts are one of the highest sources of carbon emissions.

So besides being (usually) stinky and polluting, landfills consume a lot of space that could otherwise be used for different purposes...like parks, forests, or other nice nature-y space. (To their credit, landfill management companies can partner with municipalities to cover and convert old landfills into useful space - see Freshkills Park in New York City.) Landfills have been necessary for a long time, but as we run out of space because we're an expanding population that produces a lot of stuff, we need to come up with some better solutions. Fortunately, composting has been around for ... well, forever, and we're starting to (re)learn how to take advantage of it.

Composting (a way to encourage decomposing material to do so in a clean and separated manner) removes that stinky stuff from landfills and creates a product that is useful to gardeners and farmers - remember, waste is just another name for a misallocated resource. There are also some innovative ways to use compost (check out The Plant in Chicago, for an example), and there are actually some UIC people researching and testing ways that both composting (and landfills!) can be better.

With all that said, composting could be a really good solution for UIC to better manage its waste. Although, in order to manage something, we need to measure it - and that's where this audit comes in. We're going to spend some time tomorrow helping people in the dining halls sort their food, so we can get a sample size of how much compostable food we throw away every day. From there, we can start to make estimates on how much equipment, training, and logistical support we'll need to get those food scraps composted.

Read more:

Environmental Protection Agency: Composting

Is UIC ready for a FreeCycle Store?

2011-11-08T09:30:00.000-06:00

On Thursday, December 9, 2011 Duke University will be having a grand opening of their new Free Store. At the Free Store, Duke students, staff, and faculty can "donate and/or take any gently used office supplies, books, classroom supplies, kitchen supplies, or other miscellaneous items." This new store was organized and will be operated by Duke Recycles and Students for Sustainable Living. The aim of the new store is to create a freecycle space to avoid waste which generally accumulates upon Residence Hall move-out.

There are several other colleges and universities around the country who have similar spaces, including Mills College in California, Tufts University in Massachusetts, and UC-Berkeley, which has an extensive website and more than eleven on-campus sites and three off-campus sites.

Check out this video on Bowling Green State University's Re-Store:

Bowling Green State University Re-Store from Black Swamp Journal on Vimeo.

UIC Campus Housing, at the end of the year, puts out bins in various places in the East Campus buildings for students to donate the stuff they don't want--and don't want to throw away. What if we had a store that students, faculty, and staff could access year-round? Think about those times in mid-September when you realize that a binder would work better than a spiral for your Orgo-Chem class. Or what about when your messenger bag breaks and your next paycheck doesn't come in for two more weeks? What about that unopened pack of loose-leaf paper that's been migrating around your room for the last three months?

What if we had a place reserved on campus where we could exchange all the stuff we don't need or use with the stuff we need and will use for free? Think of the money we would save on supplies, clothes, sports equipment, and books. If the UIC Green Fee passes, we may be able to use grant money to start up a store on campus.

So, dear readers, I ask you: what do you think it would take to start a freecycle store on the UIC campus?

Leave a comment with your ideas!

UIC Receives Award for Environmental Protection

2011-11-04T11:44:00.001-05:00

I was proud to accept the 25th Annual Governor's Sustainability Award for 2011 last week, on October 27.

UIC was recognized for its commitment to improving the environmental health and sustainability of Illinois. We were one of 19 first-time winners, along with 4 other colleges and universities. In his recognition letter, Governor Quinn wrote that "implementing energy efficiency upgrades, fuel savings, pollution and waste reductions, and other sustainability improvements requires vision, strong leadership, and the dedication of individuals throughout an organization. I applaud your prioritization of these important objectives and your accomplishments in these areas."

I would like to thank the Chancellor and VCAS for their support in these initiatives and thank the entire campus community for its participation. This award is a recognition of all our efforts.

Keep up the good work!

UIC Wins Best University Recycling Prize in Illinois for 2011

2011-10-26T10:00:00.000-05:00

The Illinois Recycling Association(IRA) chose UIC to receive the Grand Champion award for Outstanding College and University Recycling Program for 2010-2011. UIC was acknowledged for demonstrating the greatest achievement in both source reduction and recycling among Illinois colleges and universities competing at RecycleMania. Recyclemania is a national competition of four year colleges and universities. In 2011, 660 schools were involved. UIC placed 9th in the nation in total tonnage of recyclables, with 719,354 pounds of paper, cardboard and bottles and cans captured in the recycling stream in an eight week period.

Michael Mitchell, Executive Director of IRA presented the award at UIC on Thursday, October 6th, at 10:00 am in the offices of Mark Donovan, Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services. Receiving the award together with Mr. Donovan was Cynthia Klein-Banai, Associate Chancellor for Sustainability.

Pictured above from left to right: Pablo Acevedo, Associate Director of Facilities Management; Clarence Bridges, Director of Operations and Maintenance; Michael Mitchell; Mark Donovan; and Cynthia Klein-Banai.

Help UIC's Waste Audit for RePaper Challenge

2011-10-17T17:07:00.000-05:00

UIC is going to participate in a national effort in higher education to raise the paper recycling rate to 75%. Our current overall recycling rate is about 40% - we need to increase this to make ourselves more viable in the RePaper Challenge. We have all the requisite parts in place in our existing program, except the performance of an annual waste audit - so we will conduct the audit in an outdoor area this week.

Who: UIC Office of Sustainability

What: RePaper Challenge waste audit

When: We will collect the bags on Wednesday, October 19^th, with the help of a truck and driver provided by the Dept. of Transportation. We need several volunteers for this task, between 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

On Thursday, October 20th, starting at 9:00 a.m., one building at a time, we will weigh the trash and then sort it to find the percentage by weight of each type of paper, plastic, metal, aluminum, glass, and waste materials. The findings of the audit will be compared against the monthly recycling numbers.

Where: University Hall; James Stukel Towers; Student Center East; and the College of Medicine/Clinical Sciences Building

What: After collecting the garbage Thursday, all bags would be tagged to show the building they came from, and then delivered to a staging area at the West Dock and driveway of the 608 building (Science and Engineering Labs West) on Taylor Street just east of Morgan Street.

Also, at 4:00 pm, the trash would be re-bagged and could then be picked up by drivers to put them back into the waste stream. We’ll put the paper and any bottles or cans into recycling totes.

For this we need as many volunteers as we can get.

Extra: The volunteers involved in handling bags and/or sorting work will receive a brief safety training and will be equipped with appropriate personal protective equipment for the task they are assigned. A training has been set up with Rich Anderson, Director of the Environmental Health and Safety Office on Tuesday, October 18^th, 10:00 am in the Paulina Street Building, 1140 S. Paulina, 2^nd floor EHSO conference room. If you are unable to make this meeting, those who receive training will perform onsite training prior to any volunteer handling trash.

Please contact Joe Iosbaker if you are able to volunteer and to give your hours of availability.

Sustainability Week 2011 GSX

2011-09-02T14:59:00.002-05:00

What is the GSX?
Donate unwanted office and school supplies that could still be useful to someone else...or take away needed items for free.

Why participate in the GSX?
We can all promote reuse and source reduction as alternatives to recycling and smart, viable actions for any person or department to take. Reuse also saves your department and the university valuable resources.
Who should participate?
Everyone at UIC - Students, Faculty, and Staff. Use the GSX as an opportunity to clean out old or unused office supplies!

How do I participate?

Bring any of the following to the GSX:
· Appointment books & calendars
· Binders & notebooks
· Bookends & vertical files
· Desktop pads, trays, and organizers
· Drawer organizers
· Envelopes, interoffice or regular
· Greeting cards (unused)
· Hanging files & file folders
· Mousepads
· Name tags & holders
· Paper, notepads, & index cards (unused, any color or size)
· Pens, pencils & lead or ink refills
· Report covers & sheet protectors
· Rolodex boxes & cards
· Scissors, staplers & hole punchers
· Storage boxes/cases/files/racks
· Toner cartridges (unused)

[With help from the Micro/Station, used batteries can be dropped off for recycling.]

Unacceptable Items:
· Clothing & Shoes
· Computers*
· Furniture & Large equipment
· Hazardous Wastes
· Household items

Guidelines & Limitations:
· All donated items must be clean and in working condition.
· The value of any donated item may not exceed $100.
· Inkjet, laser, fax and copier toner cartridges are acceptable - OEM only, not refurbished.
· Furniture, computers, and larger or more expensive office equipment can be advertised at the Surplus Station.

What if I can't make it but I want to donate material?
If you can't attend the GSX, or have too much to carry that day, you can bring materials listed above to the Office of Sustainability at 117 PSB until Friday, September 10. Please contact us first to make sure someone will be in the office to receive your stuff! If it's too much to carry, you can contact us to make special arrangements before September 10.

*Computer reuse/dropoff will take place at the Campus Electronic Recycling Collection on the 14th also at the Lawn South of the Hull House; and on the 21st on the West Campus, the lawn south of the SCE.

Recognizing Building Service Workers

2011-08-12T14:33:00.000-05:00

We feel that it's important to support and highlight individuals on campus who help make our recycling program run better. To get things started this summer, we wanted to begin by recognizing the hard work of the Building Service Workers (BSWs) who play an integral role in improving recycling operations on campus.

In the past year, a number of buildings (SEO, EEI, CSB, DHSP and SPHPI) have been supplied with new equipment funded by a grant from the State of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Check out the graphs below to see how the DCEO grants, which helped increase the equipment and/or promotion of the recycling program in these buildings, and recycling behavior from building occupants and BSWs, have affected recycling in each building.

The percentage increase in paper fiber recycling at UIC buildings with DCEO-funded grant support; SPHPI had a more than 450% increase!

The averaged monthly weight (in pounds) of bottle & can recycling at UIC buildings with DCEO-funded grant support; SPHPI had an average monthly weight of about 300 pounds, while DHSP had recycled on average 260 pounds per month.

Of these, the building with the greatest increase in paper and cardboard recycling, as well as the greatest average monthly weight of bottle and can recycling, was the School of Public Health/Psychiatric Institute. Over the last year, there were five BSWs who worked there: Martin Flores, Sylvia Padilla, Ofelia Ruiz, Toya Sevier and Glenn Willoughby. Their Assistant Facility Manager is Genneine Johnson.

To recognize these individuals, we held a small awards ceremony in the BSW offices at SPHPI. The awards included a certificate of appreciation and a gift of candy. We did some research and used candy that was actually made locally in Chicago! Using re-used jars provided by Office of Sustainability staff, the gift packages were filled with Tootsie Rolls and Starlight Mints.

We want to continue the BSW recognition program throughout the year, and will be looking at our building recycling data to determine which buildings have been showing the greatest improvements. In addition to building data, we want to know of other ways that the BSWs in your building support sustainability, so we encourage students, faculty and staff to nominate a Building Service Worker using our online form.

Paper Recycling Record!

2011-08-09T17:09:00.000-05:00

During the Spring 2011 Semester, The UIC Recycling program began collecting all cardboard and paper recycling material from buildings on campus, which had been previously shared with Recycling Services (who continue to accept and recycle these materials at their off-campus site). Truck drivers Joe Fabrizio and Ray Shumpert have been doing paper collections while Fred Bartucci and Tim Macias have been collecting the cardboard. Our data show that thanks to their work, as well as all the efforts of the UIC community and our building service workers, this improvement is paying off.

In May, we broke a record for all-time monthly paper recycling on campus with over 190,000 pounds of paper material collected! This means in May alone, the paper recycled at UIC would be equivalent to:

Saving 1,622 trees
Conserving 667,716 gallons of water
Keeeping 315 cubic yards of material out of a landfill
Using 381,552 kWh of electricity
Consuming 7,536 gallons of oil
Reducing 5,723 pounds of air pollution

Want more recycling information? Visit the UIC Recycling Program's website.

Read more Shades of Green stories like the one about Joe and Ray at the UIC News Website.

What happens to UIC's paper when it leaves UIC?

2011-06-29T16:03:00.005-05:00

The Office of Sustainability took a field trip last Friday to Recycling Services, Inc. This is where all the paper and cardboard that the UIC community puts in the recycling bins and out for collection goes. First of all UIC's rearend packers are filled with material collected from all our buildings around campus. When the truck is full it is driven down to the facility, where the truck is weighed full (gross weight). Then the materials are dumped onto the tipping floor. After that the truck is weighed (tare weight) and the net weight of material delivered is calculated:
Net weight = gross weight-tare weight
The paper is then "graded" - ours is usually Unsorted Office Paper (UOP) or Other Corrogated Cardboard (OCC). This determines how much the university will be paid for the material. Currently prices for these commodities are good. Funds from the "sale" of our UOP and OCC help support the recycling collection on campus.

The UOP is fed onto the conveyor to be sorted - cardboard is removed since it is generally in bigger pieces than paper it can be separated automatically. There is also manual sorting to pull out contamination from plastic bags and other waste. Afterwards, the paper is compressed into bales. They are shipped to Menashe, WI and made into paper towels, napkins, and toilet paper.

Cardboard is placed into a separate baler and compressed into about 1/10 its original volume. Bales are shipped out to Menashe, WI where they are recycled into more cardboard.

This facility processes over 10,000 tons/month of which about 70 tons/month comes from UIC.

Recycling: Myths and other Important Facts

2011-06-29T16:00:00.001-05:00

by Donnie R. Dann

Nowadays most households recognize the importance of recycling and try to minimize their trash. We conscientiously place newspapers, most plastics (numbered 1 through 5), corrugated containers, aluminum cans, etc. in recycling bins, confident these items are again made into usable products. (Plastic #6, such as expanded polystyrene, and polyethylene or film can be separately recycled). Sustainable Business reports that in the United States waste ending up in landfills has declined from 94% of total waste generated in the 1960's to just over 54% in 2009. Yet we recycle at a rate of about half of what is recycled in Germany.

Consider, if 100% of a single Sunday run of the New York Times were recycled we could save over 75,000 trees a year and in total we throw away a billion trees worth of paper a year (Recycling-Revolution). Shouldn't we do better?

Raising awareness and urging more people to recycle is part of it. Just as important is that some items that go into the bin never get recycled! The reason is economics. Take one commonly recycled material, old newspapers. In the past 15 years the market price for waste newsprint has fluctuated from as much as $200 a ton to as little as $5 a ton. Today it's at $160 per ton but if it falls below $40 it's uneconomical for a recycler to even buy it and the eventual destination for your newspapers is still a landfill.

Another limitation on is that a recycler can't work with contaminated articles. If people are careless with what they throw in the bin and food or other stains foul the item(s) they'll still be sent to a landfill. To be returned to the manufacturing stream the raw material must be near perfect.

Some things are just not recyclable, like ceramics and aseptic products such as the material used in manufacturing juice boxes.

Sorting is another little known aspect of recycling. In Highland Park, where I live, the permitted recyclable materials are placed in a single bin. Compared to Switzerland, “there are bottle banks at every supermarket, with separate slots for clear, green and brown glass (all of which must be separately recycled - edit). Every town has a free paper collection once a month, and that does not mean just old newspapers; most people separately recycle everything made of cardboard or paper, from cereal packets to old telephone bills.” (The BBC) In most places in the U.S. it's the recycler that sorts each kind of material to sell it profitably, a much more costly process.

In a recent poll by Perc eption Research Service only 38% of consumers believe they should be responsible for recycling packaging materials. In contrast to the attitude by a majority of western Europeans it appears American shoppers expect the manufacturer to produce eco-friendly packaging and they shouldn't have to pay for it!

Bottom line; we have a long way to go for really efficient recycling to take hold, including sorting as it occurs in many countries. It obviously must be a community wide effort to be effective. Meanwhile we can all diligently separate as much as possible, make sure everything is clean, and be mindful – first reduce, then reuse and finally recycle.

This Newsletter may be excerpted, reproduced or circulated without limitation.

UIC Recyclers Saved 1,190 Trees in May

2011-06-02T14:48:00.001-05:00

Since April 2010, UIC has been picking up all of its cardboard and paper recycling itself - paper is picked up by Joe Fabrizio and Ray Shumpert and cardboard by Fred Bartucci and Tim Macias and they've been doing a great job! The numbers show that in March they collected over 140,000 pounds of material, saving 1,190 trees, 490,095 gallons of water, and reducing landfill volume by 231 cubic yards. The image above shows the history. Let's keep up the good work of separating our recyclables into the right containers and let Joe, Ray, Fred, and Tim keep up the good work of collecting it!

RecycleMania 2011 at UIC!

2011-02-04T12:06:00.005-06:00

Starting Monday February 8, over the next 10 weeks universities all over the country will be competing to beat their rival in the biggest challenge we face! Recycling!

Universities serve as small cities within their communities, meaning they produce a significant amount of waste. The biggest in mind- paper, is one of the most recycle-friendly products we use today. School's have the potential to recycle much more than they do and RecycleMania provides a fun way for recycling coordinators, student green teams and faulty to get the campus community involved.

RecycleMania creators knew that the best way to increase participation was not a simple environmental message, but a competition between rival schools to prove who is best at taking on a big challenge. This challenge incorporates more than just recycling. It requires full energy and participation from the UIC community to reduce their waste and recycle as much as they can- even from home for those who commute!

Participating schools are required to measure their output of recycled materials. However, all you have to do to be active in the competition is put as many recyclable material in the recycling bins provided on UIC's campus! Here are the past results since the first RecycleMania in 2002.

ACCC print labs eliminate cover pages

2011-01-06T14:23:00.003-06:00

ACCC labs have eliminated cover pages in most of their computing labs to conserve paper at UIC. Where they haven't, due to heavy printing traffic, recycling is available or students may grab the paper and use the other side for note-taking. For example, Lubia and Holly from the Office of Sustainability make notepads out of their cover pages.

In addition, all paper used in the UIC printers are not only set default to 2-sided printing but also use 100% recycled paper content.

We encourage UIC students and faculty to print at the no-cover print stations instead of the smaller proportion of UIC printers that still print the cover page. The no-cover printers are:
ACCC-Printer-BHB11
ACCC-Printer-SPHPIB34
ACCC-Printer-GRC105A & B
ACCC-Printer-SEL2058,2249F, 2263,2265A & B
ACCC-Printer-SSB2300A & B
ACCC-AA2306-HP130C, E, G & H, HPZ3100A
ACCC-AA3510-CopierA, B & C, HP5500A-J
ACCC-Printer-EPASWL270A & B
ACCC-Printer-GH105 & 306
ACCC-Printer-SEO1200 & 430
ACCC-Printer-SES201 & 205B
LIB-DALEYPRINT1, 2 & 3

The cover-printing stations are:
ACCC-Printer-BSBB001A, B, & C
ACCC-Printer-LIB1444, B
ACCC-Printer-SCE401A, B, C, D, E, & F
ACCC-Printer-SRC2027A & B

If you are in a situation where you are using from the cover-printing labs, remember to recycle or reuse them!

Would it become a problem eliminating covers in high-traffic the labs?

Do jobs pile up too often in the printers, etc?

Volunteer training at Greenbuild 2010

2010-11-17T14:11:00.000-06:00

The thought of volunteering at the USGBC's Greenbuild came to me while I was at the Foresight Sustainability Career Seminar I attended about a month ago in the Haworth Room at the Merchandise Mart. Peter Nicholson, head of the seminar and Foresight Design Initiative, recommended to get involved in the sustainability world as much as possible-and what better way to do that than to attend the Greenbuild Expo for free!

From the website:

Greenbuild is the world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building.Thousands of building professionals from all over the world come together at Greenbuild for three days of outstanding educational sessions, renowned speakers, green building tours, special seminars, and networking events.

After signing up for two four hour shifts, I had to attend a training last night from 7:30-8:30 pm. First off, when checking in, volunteers receive a free t-shirt they must wear during volunteering hours and a very cool shoulder bag filled with information on Greenbuild and it's events!

A little background information was brought to our attention at first. This is the second time Greenbuild has been held in Chicago's McCormick Place-2007 and 2010. On it's 8th year running, Chicago's McCormick Place has a legend to live up to or, as hopefully planned, succeed. Pre-Greenbuild 2007, the McCormick Place had only recycled a mere 3% of its waste. Over the course of Greenbuild, they made a complete turn around and recycled 91% of its waste. That blew my mind!

Greenbuild 2007 remains the one expo that had the lowest percentage of non-recyclable waste. To make that possible, volunteers like me sign-up to hold duties of floaters and recycling attendants. Being an all day event, people are enjoying food and beverages all day, amongst other waste, and walking up to a four sectioned "garbage" can be a little intimidating. Volunteers, wearing an orange t-shirt with a question mark on the front, are there to help the attendees place their items into the correct stream.

The four streams are paper, plastic, compost, and landfill. Paper is pretty self-explanatory. Plastic get more complicated with the numbering system it has. Plastics with a number 6 must go to the landfill and number 7 plastics can be composted. The rest can be placed into the plastic stream. Plastic-looking items such as straws and hot cup lids cannot be recycled and must also go to the landfill stream. Composting is also a little complex because of the different types known and different non-organic materials allowed. Along with all food materials (raw and cooked meat, dairy, cheese, vegetables... etc), napkins, straw wrappers, and Starbucks hot cups can also be placed into the compost bin. The landfill stream consists of chip bags, candy wrapper, napkins used for blowing noses, wooden and plastic stirrer sticks, etc..

When looking at emissions, the team looked outside the McCormick place to take into account the attendees traveling from all around the world. The emission of that alone are enormous, so to do their part the Greenbuild team cut down on printing, used all post-consumer recycled carpeting, procured local, organic food, and asked hotels to promote re-use linens and recycle to guests. The site has tips for visitors on how to be efficient when staying in hotels in Chicago and commuting to the expo.

As I walked to the volunteer training room, I passed the main exhibit hall filled with people and exhibitors. I am looking forward to my post about my volunteering experience! If you are unable to attend, the website is full of information!