Tan for white office paper, computer paper and white envelopes. Blue for cans and bottles. Dark green for newspapers.
In just about every campus building, color-coded bins are conveniently positioned to accept discarded paper, cans and bottles for re-use. Now, Yale's recycling program is being expanded to include another color bin -- grey, for glossy paper. Furthermore, the tan bins will now sport more colorful interiors, as they can now be used to recycle colored paper as well as white paper.
The changes in the campus' recycling options are in response to Yale community members' expressed desire to recycle colored as well as white paper, says C.J. May, the University's recycling coordinator.
"People were asking how they could recycle their colored paper, and some people were putting colored paper in the bin with white paper anyway," says Mr. May, a 1989 graduate of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Once the decision was made to add colored paper to the campus recycling efforts, "we had to decide how to separate it," he says. "Should we put the colored paper with the white paper or with the glossy paper?"
The decision to create a separate bin for glossy paper was based primarily on economics, he explains. White paper can be sold to recycling companies for about $50 per ton although market prices vary widely . Colored paper yields a lower dollar figure, and glossy paper even lower. Therefore, a mixture of white and colored paper would bring a higher return than a mix of colored and glossy paper.
"So, the office paper bin is now for both white and colored paper, and we have a new glossy paper bin," says Mr. May. Included in the "glossy paper" category are non-glue-bound magazines, slick flyers, catalogs and other low-grade papers. Books are not included; corrugated cardboard is recycled separately.
Another innovation in Yale's recycling program is that No. 1 and No. 2 plastic containers can now be discarded in the blue cans- and-bottles bin. The bottom of a container will indicate whether it is made out of No. 1 or No. 2 plastic, says Mr. May, who has spent the past several weeks coordinating with students delivery of the grey recycling bins to campus buildings. In addition, he has been working with Campus Mail administrators to help inform the Yale community about the mail reduction program, which helps curtail unwanted paper at its source, he says. See sidebar.
"There's a difference between glossy paper recycling and junk mail reduction," he notes. "If people get something they want, then read, then want to discard, we want them to recycle. If they get something they don't want, we want them to reduce it. The new bins will each have a temporary note on them explaining that faculty and staff can have their names removed from mailing lists by following some simple instructions." Kiosks also have been good for source reduction, he adds.
To encourage people to continue with and improve their recycling efforts, Mr. May has incorporated suggestions he's received about the metal recycling bins into the design of the new containers, which stand 28 inches high and are 16.5 inches in diameter. These include increasing the slot from one inch to two inches and moving the label from the side to the top of the bin so people don't have to bend over to read what items can be placed in the bin, he says.
Yale began its recycling efforts more than 25 years ago, when then-undergraduate Christiane H. Citron '71 established the first University-wide recycling effort by working with other students to pick up discarded newspapers and cans for reprocessing at a nearby plant. The program grew over time, and eventually the student group Yale Recycling was lauded by the Environmental Protection Agency.
"Recycling at Yale was almost an entirely student-run operation between 1970 and 1990, when it was taken over by the Yale administration," says Mr. May. In 1987 the Connecticut State Legislature passed a law mandating that certain items be recycled beginning in 1991. Mr. May was hired in 1990 to help the University comply with the specifics of the legislation. He works with other administrators in the Office of Facilities and the Secretary's Office, as well as students who continue to work for and increase awareness about recycling; directors, department heads and business managers, who ensure safe and convenient locations for recycling bins; custodial staff, who service indoor recycling bins; and grounds maintenance staff, who collect outdoor recycling receptacles which, like the indoor bins, are color-coded and labeled.
Shortly after he was named to his post, Mr. May oversaw the dispensation of 2,300 indoor bins on campus. An additional 700 bins currently are being placed for glossy paper, which brings the number of indoor bins on campus to 3,000, he notes. "We try to put them where they will be appropriate. For instance, the dining halls have a lot of can and bottle bins, but not many for office paper."
Mr. May estimates that recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees; 4,100 kilowatt hours of electricity conserved by not using energy to make new paper and 7,000 gallons of water. It also reduces air pollution by 59.96 pounds and saves three cubic yards of landfill space, he adds. In 1988, the first year for which University statistics are available, Yale generated 6,124 tons of solid waste. That figure dropped to 4,399 tons in 1996. The decrease is about equally due to source reduction and recycling efforts, says Mr. May. Last year Yale recycled over 850 tons of paper, corrugated cardboard, cans, bottles and other items.
Incentives are part of Yale's recycling efforts. Mr. May says, for example, that "people should be on the lookout for 'Recyclo!'" The initiative consists of students visiting offices to check on staff members' recycling. The office with the best recycling practices wins free muffins from Yale Dining Halls. "We try to hit everybody," Mr. May says. "We want to make recycling fun and easy, and we try to reward people for doing a good job."
In addition to the above-mentioned items, Yale also recycles computers, laser printer toner cartridges, telephone directories, leaves and usable office furniture. For more information, call 432- 6852.
Please Mr. Postman ... How to bid goodbye to the spectre of junk mail
As part of Yale's mail reduction program, faculty and staff receiving unwanted items via U.S. Mail are asked to:
Mail reduction items will be picked up from your department along with your regular campus mail. "The easiest way to use the program is to keep a white mail bucket in your mailroom with the sign 'Junk Mail' taped on the side of it," says mail reduction coordinator Lynne Beauchemin. Once your unwanted mail is delivered to the campus mail department at 100 John Murphy Dr., Ms. Beauchemin goes through it to determine how to stop the mailings.
"It depends on what the piece is," she says. "Sometimes there are postage-paid envelopes that we can send back and let them know that they should cancel the mailing. Sometimes an 800 fax number is listed, and I'll fax them. Any way we can get back to them without paying postage, that's what we'll do. But if that's not possible, sometimes I will call. So far, I've updated 437 mailing lists. To give you an idea of the savings, an update of the mailing list for the L.L. Bean catalogue, which weighs about a pound and is distributed quarterly, has resulted in a savings of 2,487 pounds each mailing. That's 2,487 pounds less mail we have to carry around campus. Mail reduction definitely works."
-- By Felicia Hunter